Colombia 107 accident

[Lama Driver]

Condolences to the families of the crew killed in yesterdays 107 crash in Montana.
Fine people, fine company, terrible loss.

R I P

[Pac Rotors]

GM

Good to see you alive and kicking. Bad news about the 107. Obviously the maint test flight came up short. Columbia operate a great operation and these sort of things for them are few and far between.

Pac Rotors :(

[Cyclic Hotline]

Tragic accident, with a tragic outcome. My sincere condolences to the families involved and to all our good friends at Columbia. :(

[sling load]

Can't seem to find anything out about it, can some of you guys fill us in?

[Cyclic Hotline]

This accident occurred on August 30 2001, condolences to the families and colleagues of everyone involved. :(

There will be a memorial service in Portland on Monday.
http://www.ihogman.com/ihfa/

NTSB preliminary report.

NTSB Identification: SEA01FA163

Accident occurred Friday, August 31, 2001 at Emigrant, MT
Aircraft:Kawasaki KV-107-II, registration: N186CH
Injuries: 3 Fatal.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.

On August 31, 2001, approximately 0905 hours mountain daylight time, a Kawasaki Vertol KV-107 II rotorcraft, N186CH, registered to and operated by Columbia Helicopters, Inc., and being flown by two commercial pilots, was destroyed when it collided with terrain following a loss of control in flight during an unknown phase of operation. The crash site was approximately three miles south of Emigrant, Montana. Both pilots and the onboard mechanic were fatally injured. A post-crash fire destroyed much of the rotorcraft. Visual meteorological conditions existed and no flight plan had been filed. The flight, which was a maintenance check flight following a phase five inspection, was to have been operated under 14CFR91, and originated from a staging site approximately eight nautical miles north of the crash site and slightly north of Emigrant, Montana. The rotorcraft was estimated to have departed on the check flight approximately 0845.

Witnesses, who reported seeing the rotorcraft in flight, stated that it was "wobbling." One witness reported seeing one of the main rotors come off. On site emergency response personnel reported a wide distribution of wreckage at the crash scene. They also reported that the fuselage, consumed by fire aft of the cockpit, was contained within a confined area.

On site examination revealed that the majority of the aft main rotor blade fragments were located within several hundred feet of the ground impact site. Substantial fragments of the forward main rotor blades were located more distant. The entire wreckage distribution appeared to be oriented along a northeast/southwest bearing.

The wreckage has been recovered and transported to the operator's facility in Aurora, Oregon, and will undergo further examination by the investigative team on Wednesday, September 12, 2001.

News Story from 2 Sept 2001.

Montana Wildfire Doubles in Size

By BECKY BOHRER, Associated Press Writer

WEST GLACIER, Mont. (AP) - A wind-driven wildfire exploded overnight, more than doubling in size, as it burned into Glacier National Park and threatened homes.

The fire expanded on all sides, wiping out containment lines that firefighters had established in the previous week as it grew from 19,000 acres on Friday to 46,000 acres by Saturday morning, information officer Wayne Johnson said. That included 10,000 acres inside the west edge of the park.

More than 9,000 firefighters were battling the blaze Saturday, as winds gusted up to 40 mph.

"This fire is going to get extremely large,'' incident commander Larry Humphrey told some 200 area residents Friday night. "We could have the 5th Army in here and they couldn't stop it.''

The flames near Glacier advanced five to six miles Friday as wind blew at 30 mph, grounding helicopters. On Saturday morning, the fire's leading edge was about 10 miles from the north end of Lake McDonald, where expensive houses stand, and eight miles from Apgar Campground near the park's west entrance.

Under the right conditions it could approach the park's headquarters at West Glacier, Humphrey said.

"This isn't a fire you just run in and put out,'' Humphrey said. `It's going to take a long time.''

Homeowners Jack and Regine Hoag calmly read the newspaper Saturday at their summer home a few steps from Lake McDonald.

"We feel vulnerable, but we don't feel panicked,'' Regine Hoag said.

Doug Miller, another homeowner, was planning to move his horses.

"The main thing is just don't panic. Fires have a life of their own,'' he said.

The Glacier fire was one of 22 major fires that had burned more than 222,000 acres in the West on Friday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

In southern Montana, near Yellowstone National Park, federal aviation officials were investigating Friday's crash of a firefighting helicopter that killed all three men on board.

The twin-engine craft went down in a brushy ravine during a routine maintenance flight, said Jon Lazzaretti, spokesman for the aircraft's owner, Columbia Helicopters Inc. of Aurora, Ore.

Pilot Rich Hernandez, 37, of Florida; co-pilot Santi Arovitx, 28, of Hillsboro, Ore.; and crew chief Kip Krigbaum, 45, of Emmett, Idaho, were killed.

"Firefighting is a dangerous business,'' said fire information officer Warren Bielenberg. "We'd been lucky so far. We've got 1,200 people involved with this thing. They've been here 10 days and there was one injury, before (Friday).''

The fire near Yellowstone did not expand significantly Friday as crews worked to strengthen fire lines, officials said.

Elsewhere in the West, the National Interagency Fire Center said firefighters had the upper hand and were close to containing most of the largest wildfires.

Both the northern California fire that last week threatened the small mining town of Weaverville and a 74,000-acre complex of fires in central Washington's Cascades were about 90 percent contained Friday.

In Arizona, five lightning-caused wildfires had burned more than 1,200 acres around the Grand Canyon, including one that closed a road near the North Rim. Crews were monitoring the fires, but letting them burn.

[ 08 September 2001: Message edited by: Cyclic Hotline ]

[ 08 September 2001: Message edited by: Cyclic Hotline ]