ecureuil crash nice - monaco 8th June 2004

[nesis_glf]

I am not a rotorhead, but my brother and his partner died in this crash in the bay of Saint Jean Cap Ferret. The " BEA " have not issued the crash report yet after 4 years.
If anyone has any knowledge or comments about the crash I would be most greatful to hear from them, this is NOT a witch-hunt, I need to know how my brother died to give it closure.
With thanks for any help given,

Yours, Richard Finch, Cornwall, England.

[Bladecrack]

Richard,

Firstly wlecome to Rotorheads and let me offer my condolences on the loss of your brother in such tragic circumstances. Unfortunately I am not familiar with this accident, so I can offer no help in this aspect, however as I fly a similar type of helicopter for a living, I would also be interested to hear the details made public so that lessons may be learned to help avoid similar accidents. I am sure someone on pprune will have some more useful information for you, and hopefully the authorities will pull the finger out and publish the accident report in the near future.

Regards,

BC

[RVDT]

Original post (http://www.pprune.org/forums/rotorheads/133392-nice-monaco-shuttle-down-five-killed.html)

Was the aircraft ever recovered? Unfortunately it might make things extremely difficult to arrive at a conclusion.

[nesis_glf]

Thanks for your e-mail. I will let you know when the report is published, and hopefully you can view it on the BEA website. I would hate this to happen again if the engine was found to be the problem.

Regards, Richard.

[nesis_glf]

Thanks for your e-mail. The helicopter sank in 300 metres, and it took 3 weeks to get the lifting gear into position and raise it. The BEA have taken 4 years so far, but hopefully the cause should be known in the not to distant future, I know these things take time but it's a long time not knowing the truth of what happened.

Regards, Richard.

[TRC]

Richard,

I have waded through the French BEA website, but the only reference to this accident is in the statistics for 2004.
BEA (http://www.bea-fr.org/anglaise/bea/bea.htm)

It is possible (maybe) that the investigation was/is still the responsibility of the Monaco CAA:

Service de l'Aviation Civile
Héliport de Monaco
Avenue des Ligures
MC 98000 - MONACO

Téléphone : (+ 377) 98 98 87 11
Télécopie : (+ 377) 98 98 87 08
E-mail : [email protected] ([email protected])

I believe that the registration of the helicopter involved was 3A-MIK (but not certain), however the date should be enough.

You may be able to ask the UK AAIB for help in this case, they liase with other states:

General Enquiries:
01252 510300

I would like to join the fellow Ppruners in offering my belated condolences to you, and wish you luck in bringing this unfortunate episode to a close.

Regards,

TRC

[nesis_glf]

Thank you for your e-mail with all the information given. All has been noted in my search for the outcome of the investigation, which I now understand is complete and awaiting publication, according to the AAIB on checking with the BEA in France.

Thanks again for your kind help,

Best Regards, Richard

[Helicopterist]

What I gathered by speaking with local pilots points to an engine-out due to a bearing failure, but that's unofficial of course. What appears very likely is that the low flight altitude played a part. Apparently it was relatively common to fly this leg at low altitude, 300ft, until this accident. This was in part dictated by the fact that you fly into the busy Nice ATC (almost never holding, it's a quick suttle-leg that wouldn't be feasible otherwise) where you are required to be below 500ft to stay well clear of commercial fixed wing traffic, which often approaches on nearly the same heading along the coastline). Many questioned this company's pilots (all ex military) practice of regularly flying 300ft at max cruise over the sea. On a loaded A/C, as in this case, there is little time to slow to the required 80kts in order to inflate, inflate and then autorotate to a safe speed (floats do you no good if you impact the water at 60kts) if the single engine quits.
At least one float was recovered on the surface as rescue crafts arrived, which points to too much speed on the water landing. Given the squirrel comes down at about 2400ft min. at full gross (and that's with the engine at idle in training, faster I guess if the donkey has really gone quiet), the pilot had just a few seconds to slam the collective, slow, inflate and flare/stop. This can be done but add a moment of hesitation and/or a tailwind and who knows...
It's all speculation of course, but the fact remains that policy was changed requiring all company pilots to fly this leg at 500ft immediately following the accident.
I am sorry for your sad loss and the fact that I can't provide any more info. And apologies for the late reply, for what it's worth, but I only check this forum occasionally.