Chopper hits bakkie

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A chopper lifting off from a shopping complex in Kroonstad landed on top of a bakkie, injuring its driver on Saturday. It apparently lost power shortly after takeoff. No fatalities.

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According to News 24:
Johannesburg - An SABC promotional helicopter transporting cast and crew members from the local soapie 7de Laan crashed into a bakkie in Kroonstad on Saturday, Free State police said.
Spokesperson Superintendent Sam Makhele said the helicopter was transporting cast and crew to a stadium for a show.
"It is not known how the helicopter crashed into the bakkie in Du Toit street. Four people including the pilot were injured.
"The driver of the bakkie was also seriously injured and was taken to hospital for medical treatment," he said.
One woman was treated for a possible fracture to her left leg and other injuries, said paramedics Netcare 911.
The other cast and crew members only sustained minor injuries. The rescue effort was co-ordinated by the Kroonstad Emergency Services and paramedics, the fire department and police.

[Leftpedal]

Saw the amateur cameraman's footage on telly this morning. I think they said there were no serious injuries from the helicopter but I'm not sure about the bakkie driver. They also said the aircraft suffered a "mechanical failure". Looked like the aircraft (R44) was yawing to the left as it was going down. The machine ended up on its side but no fire this time, luckily.

[razorback]

Was Eskom involved? They did the same thing with a Squirrel in Jo'burg last year.

[Jangys]

Am not a chopper expert or expert on crash investigations...what I could gather from the video:

I cannot understand why the pilot did a 360 to return to the place of departure.??

Maybe to do a flypast?? or did they depart from somewhere else?

During the video, the R44 kept on losing height, a very high nose up attitude just before impact. Great job to the pilot who actually did an excellent job....


:D

[Shrike200]

I cannot understand why the pilot did a 360 to return to the place of departure.??

Oddly enough, nor can I.

[Avi8tor]

Anybody seen the footage anywhere on the net?

[eish]

http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Video/0,,3-2082_2333296,00.html

If I'm not mistaken you can hear the comment "I lost the hydraulics" or something to that effect.

[birrddog]

Strange, looking at the video some wild speculation comes to mind, but I will keep that to myself until further facts are revealed.

The R44 can fly without hydraulics, in fact only the Raven-II had hydraulics (some earlier models had but only with after market install). Like a 206 you can fly without hydraulics; it just feels a little "loose and heavy"

From the video it looked like there was open ground in the direction of take-off, can't imagine the need for a low level 360 when a quick stop would have sufficed.

Hard to tell from the video however the approach seemed way to low and fast for that to have had a chance at a happy ending.

Good to hear everyone survived albeit with injuries.

Sad to see a Robbie end its life like that...

[Overdrive]

Could've been a lot worse...

Lucky that fuel didn't go up with the switches left on too.

[bvgs]

Birrddog you're mistaken, both the Raven I and Raven II came with hydraulics factory fitted. In fact a few Astro's were also factory fitted with hydraulic just before they changed to the Raven I. I think to say that in the event of a hydraulic failure the controls are simply loose and heavy is a bit of an understatement. Both controls get very heavy, the collective wants to lower itself and the cyclic can very easily be over corrected....continually. If this was a hydraulic failure and it occured in the last few seconds, the pilot would have had little time to do much. I have my own oppinions on what went wrong based on the previous flypast but they are only my oppinions so I'll keep them to myself. Glad no one was seriously injured, looked like alot of fuel spillage:eek:.

[rockpecker]

In the video clip, the decreasing rotor RPM during the last moments can be clearly heard - something else than hydraulics must have been wrong? The clip also shows how quickly things can go wrong and come to an end - no time to think far ahead and plan the outcome, it just happens very quickly. Good luck to the pilot, hope you're back in the air quickly again, get your confidence back.

[Shrike200]

Well, a giant handful of collective, plus back on the cyclic will make the RRPM decrease, as well as cone the blades and change the pitch attitude like that?

[Jangys]

I heard the following: Just heard....not confirmed or any than just...Heard

The pilot did the 360 to do a beat up....sounded the loud haler....apparrently they have these installed???

Now according to what I have heard...the switches for the loud haler and hydraulics are close together. Wanted to switch the loud haler off, but switched the hydraulics off by mistake.

Now listening to the video...you can hear the loud haler still going after the crash???

I might be wrong, Am not a chopper pilot...but do make sense to me.....

Please, please....only an rumour....not blaming anyone....

:bored:

[rockpecker]

Jangys, that was the low RRPM horn you heard. With electrics on and collective up, it screams. No "loud haler".
The R44 hydraulics switch sits on the thumb, it needs a deliberate action to turn off, not done accidentally. If it failed it was for real.

[krobar]

I believe the hydraulics theory. That specific machine has a loud hailer installed for game-capture, actually a house burglar-alarm. The owner installed it himself, so I wouldn't be surprised if this story is accurate.

[FloatFlyFu..]

Hydraulics my ass... This was a classic scenario: heavy machine, low level low speed turn, downwind flyby (look at the trees in the video clip), loss of Rotor RPM, increased collective, aft cyclic... CRASH!!!

This is what happens when the basic rules are not followed!