AB139 crash in Italy

[Wallaby]

Has anyone heard anything on the crash of the AgustaBell 139 ship No.3. I have heard the control was lost at about 10000ft, the pilot strugled to regain control until 1000ft where he blew the rotor and he and the engineer bailed out with parachutes. I have heard that the pilot survived but the engineer was killed. Any update would be appreciated.

[PANews]

As much as is generally known [not a lot] is posted within the news pages of www.rotorhub.com

You seem to have most of it already.

[magbreak]

Wallaby, There was a thread on this subject a couple of weeks ago.

It was ship No 1 then, but no other details were given other than the engineer was killed, and the pilot survived. Other than what you've said it's been very quiet. The Agusta website hadn't been updated since march when I last looked, and nothing has really appeared in the papers with a hint of the cause.

[Heliport]

According to Helicopter World "The AB139 which crashed April 23rd, killing flight engineer Vincenzo Iellamo, was at the time undergoing autorotation tests. It is reported that the aircraft lost control, at which point the crew decided to abandon the aircraft.

Apparently the flight engineer's parachute opened too early, and became entangled in the rotor blades.

[Lu Zuckerman]

A similar incident happened to a friend of mine during the testing of (I believe) the CH-53 in which he was the pilot. He and the crew abandoned the aircraft and after he was descending on his chute the helicopter rolled into him and he was caught in the rotor system. His name was “Obie” Blanchard.