Helicopter crash in Dubai

[iuk1963]

Helicopter crash on Palm Jumeirah in Dubai | GulfNews.com (http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/emergencies/helicopter-crash-on-palm-jumeirah-in-dubai-1.1280810)

just spotted..

[NRDK]

Hope the female pilot recovers ok and her colleague. Plenty of news links if you can be bothered to google Atlantis helicopter crash.

[Ready2Fly]

Both men were airlifted to Rashid Hospital.
:rolleyes:

[Democritus]

Other reports say it was a woman - although the Alpha Tours website does not list a woman amongst its pilots - and that it was an EC130B4 Registration A6-DYR:

The helicopter that was piloted by a woman crashed during take-off in the parking lot of Atlantis hotel, Gulf News has learnt. The crew member on board sustained moderate injures.Alpha Tours said: “We can confirm that there was an accident at noon on Wednesday involving one of our helicopters at the Palm Jumeirah. The helicopter was an EC130B4 registration A6-DYR with one pilot and one member of our ground staff on board.

[helihub]

"The helicopter impacted the helipad surface shortly after lift-off. It was airborne for less than a minute and had climbed to approx. 20 meters. After impact, the helicopter continued to spin counter clockwise about its landing gears, on the tarmac for approximately 149 meters destroying the surrounding trees/markers before coming to rest at the end of the tarmac. Even though the cabin was intact, the impact and contact with the surrounding objects caused the tail rotor and cabin door to separate, severe damage to the tail boom, main rotor blades and other parts of the helicopter."

[tiltrotor]

I am wondering if anyone has background on who the operator was. As far as I know Alphatours is just a travel/tour company that outsorces. Judging from the press-release (government aircraft) and type of aircraft, would that have been HELI DUBBAI?

Very tragic, but fortunately everyone did survive.

[paco]

From my mole:

Pilot was apparently doing two 360 degree pedal turns in a vertical takeoff out of the Atlantis hotel and apparently lost tail rotor control authority (ran out of power due to fenestron thrust limitations). After it hit the ground nobody could get near the aircraft as it spun around on the ground 100 to 200 times over more than five minutes as people looked on in horror (the pilot and HLO were unconscious). The 38 year old SA female pilot is now out of the coma and ICU , but had broken ribs, a broken sternum, punctured lung (she apparently collapsed onto the cyclic), and four vertebrae replaced. She had given her notice to HeliDubai and was apparently doing a little work 2 weeks before her scheduled departure. Very sad... The GCAA is investigating.

Phil