helicopter midair collisions

[BlenderPilot]

I was talking to a friend today and he mentioned that you could problably survive a fixed wing midair but it would be impossible to survive a helicopter one.

Strangely, the only 3 pilots that I know have been in a helo midair, have all survived and are still flying today.

Incident one,

Texas 1982, Bell 212 vs. Cessna Piston, my friend only 20 years old at the time was getting his training in the 212, just as they were getting ready to roll the throttles to idle for a straight in auto, the Cessna decided to land on their TR and he tells from there on everything became a blur all the way to the ground. He survived without a scratch.

Incident two,

Chiapas Mexico, 1985, Two police Bell 206's were flying two cute french girls over the "agua azul" waterfalls here in Mexico (picture I took of the waterfalls included), one of the 206's flew sideways into the other and completely ripped off the skids of the my friends 206 with the MR, he tells me the helicopter instantly skewed into a rhombus shaped fuselage but kept on flying, the other helicopter inmediately sank making a very hard crash landing, my friend descended to drop off one of his pax to help the people on the fallen heli, returned to base landed on the helicopters belly, came back to pick up the others in a 212. All 5 people on the 2 helicopters survived.

Incident three,

Mexico City, 1980's While doing some sort of aerial parade, two Bell 206JR's got a little too close and the MR blade tips touched, one of them fell on top of a very large bakery, and the other suffered severe vibration, landed inmediately, nobody was seriously hurt.

Any of you have any stories with a positive outcome to share?

http://homepage.mac.com/helipilot/PPRuNe/aguaazul.jpg

[heedm]

Sketchy details, but know it happened.

H46 collided with something, became two H23's. Serious injuries but there were survivors (not sure if any fatal...like I said, only sketchy details).

[Thomas coupling]

A mid air with wires:
A lynx hit wires in Norway, doing about 60kts. Stopped the helo - dead! Wires contacted the base of the windscreen and started to work their way up towards the main rotor:(
Pilot managed to retract himself and his crew from the snare and landed safely.

A seaking crew from the danish navy flew into wires and lost their entire tail stanchion. Crew instantly became passengers as the a/c spun violently earthward and landed in the fjord.
All survived.

A police AS355 in the hover in broad daylight was struck by a passing Tucano (prop) RAF/Navy FW trainer in its stinger region. Tucano cockpit smashed, Both landed intact.

During display rehearsals:
Two seakings contacted blades during a manouevre. All survived. Similarly two Gazelles on another occasion.

[Hilico]

Two helis (think one was a Llama) collide head-on but displaced sideways about 20 feet. Both pilots feel the bang and set up last-ditch autos, then realise they still have control and so land safely. If the Llama had been carrying a passenger, he would have been decapitated, according to the hole in the canopy. (Pilot magazine, years and years ago, reported by Stephan Wilkinson).

[ShyTorque]

TC,

As I recall, the Tucano took the entire tail rotor and gearbox asembly off the police heli and the pilot did extremely well to land safely (and carry on being a CAA inspector).

[cpt]

I remember having heard a story of a midair between an army Alouette 2 and a Cessna 150 in Freiburg (germany) in 73 or 74,

The Cessna had come in climbing under the descending Alouette...in airport pattern.
The left seat passenger (who was an enginneer) in Alouette suffered a cut leg by the Cessna propeler.
I think the Cessna crashed, with casuaties, since the Alouette made a forced barrely controled landing on the city's hospital lawn!. Engineer survived.

[SASless]

Have seen two midair collisions......one between an AH-1G Cobra helicopter and an OV-10 Bronco. Both aircraft circling over a contact engagement between US and NVA forces....Cobra crew died....OV-10 crew ejected and were rescued.

Watched an Eastern DC-9 over take a C-172 on final approach to Raleigh-Durham airport. The Cessna hung up between the landing gear of the DC-9 for a short distance then the right wing failed....the Cessna then went vertically into the ground within fifty feet of the windsock. The DC-9 landed safely with no injuries. The two occupants of the Cessna died instantly upon impact to the ground.

Also retrieved the bodies of the crew of a CH-47 Chinook that had an O-1E Birddog airplane fly up into the blades of the helicopter while being sling loaded back for repair. Six dead on that one. The airplane began to fly....climbed up under the forward blades.....then swung back, down, and then up into the rear blades. All observed by a following UH-1H helicopter.

[soggyboxers]

1968, Firth of Forth, when practising close formation flying for the Fleet Review 2 Wessex Vs of 845 NACS got too close and had a severe intermeshing of main rotor blades. Both aircraft were landed safely and the crews were all unharmed.

[Thomas coupling]

Shytorque: Amazing how things snowball, eh. The Tucano 'clipped' the stinger on the underside of the 355's tail section. Damage: tucano cockpit smashed, 355 crew, new underwear!! There was negligible damage to the airframe.

SASless: C'mon now...I know your keen to 'juice' the thread up with war stories, but blender did ask for: +ve outcomes/survivable collisions.....
this is a much more difficult statistic to recall would you not agree....
[I see the blue on blue mil thread is proving quite interesting?].

http://homepage.mac.com/helipilot/PPRuNe/headon1.jpg

[46Driver]

I believe the one heedm is talking about was when 2 CH-46's were doing ACM. They were practicing a center turn, lost sight of each other, and hit. One made it back ok, but the other broke in half, killing the crewchief (and the nurses along for the ride) but the pilots actually autorotated the front part down (pure luck - somehow the hydraulic lines got sealed and there was enough pressure left in them).
The second one was my squadron back in 1996 at Camp Lejeune. Flight of 4 CH-46's going into a zone and 2 Cobras leaving the zone. (low light level, but significant illumination from other sources, also approaching 14 hours of crew day and 1:30 AM). Dash-2 Cobra T-boned the 2nd CH-46 at 300 ft, 100 knots. Both of the Cobra pilots killed instantly and all of the personnel in the back of the CH-46 killed (10 pax, 1 crewchief, 1 aerial observer). The Phrog broke into 3 sections, aft from the 410 section (basically the engines and rear tranny), the main cabin, and the cockpit. Cockpit landed in a swamp which might have cushioned the impact but the HAC survived (critical injuries) and the H2P survived (only a broken leg).

[407 Driver]

From the USA NTSB site, a 407 collided with a 355
___________________________________________________

NTSB Identification: FTW99FA001A. The docket is stored in the (offline) NTSB Imaging System.
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Monday, October 05, 1998 in VERMILION 331, GM
Aircraft: Bell 407, registration: N403PH
Injuries: 1 Fatal, 1 Minor.
The Bell 407 collided with an Aerospatiale AS-355-F1 while both helicopters were in cruise flight at 1,000 AGL over open ocean in the Gulf of Mexico. Both aircraft were being flown single pilot and were positioning flights between offshore platforms. The pilot of the Bell initiated an autorotation to the water and was rescued. The pilot of the Aerospatiale was fatally injured during the collision/water impact sequence and his helicopter impacted the water and sank into the ocean. Physical evidence on the recovered Bell wreckage indicated that the main rotor blades of the Aerospaciale struck the nose section of the Bell, removing the windshield, chin bubble and anti-torque pedals. The Bell's direct flight course was about 265 degrees. The Aerospatiale's direct course was about 155 degrees. The Bell pilot did not see the Aerospatiale until just before impact. The Helicopter Safety Advisory Conference (HSAC) had published a Recommended Practice (RP) in 1993 for standardized vertical separation of helicopters when flying in the offshore environment. Excerpts are: 'Helicopters operating enroute to and from offshore locations, below 3,000 feet, weather permitting, should use [the following] enroute altitudes; Magnetic Heading of 0 to 179 degrees - 750 feet or 1,750 feet, or 2,750 feet, Magnetic Heading of 180 to 359 degrees - 1,250 feet or 2,250 feet.' These recommended altitudes, if used, provide a minimum of 500 feet vertical clearance. Both operators, who are participating members in HSAC, did not have the HSAC-RP No. 93.1 included in their respective operations manuals. The RP's are recommended and not mandatory.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:

the failure of both pilots to see and avoid each other's aircraft during cruise flight. Factors were the failure of both pilots to use a known safety advisory recommendation and the failure of both operators to implement the recommendation as a company operating procedure.

Full narrative available at http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20001211X11250&key=1

[Rob_L]

In the mid eighties a Bell47 (Bristows?) had a mid air with a Hughes 500 over Kent. The main blades contacted each other resulting in the 47 having a crumpled blade which allowed an emergency landing to be made.
The 500 lost about a foot off one blade which of course resulted in the loss of the tip weights.

In the emergency decent all the radios shook out of their racks by the vibration and fell out through the canopies which had shattered. The instrument console and the aft structure then proceeded to act as dampers to the massive vibration. This resulted in the console shearing off at the floor and the longerons in the aft fuse shearing.

The pilot then managed to get the aircraft onto the ground unfortunately in a hop field with all the attendant cables.
The aircraft sustained more damage but everyone walked away.

Raise a glass to the Hughes 500 and to lady luck.