Chopper down in Suburban Sydney
 

Just heard through the car radio, a helicopter has crashed in Turramurra, Sydney, with reports of fatalities. Condolences to all. :{
Be careful out there people.. :uhoh:

It's hit the papers now - Two dead in helicopter crash on Sydney's north shore

2 Fatalities confirmed... looked nasty on the 11am news... wreckage strewn everywhere.... Condolences to the families involved :(

Right in the middle of the lane of entry too. Couldn't think of much of a worse place to need to put down given any issues in this sort of weather. Condolences.

Pretty sure I saw this just before it happened. I was driving nearby and saw a B206 flying north, scud running, it suddenly turned south and descended into the bush. I remember thinking that it was unusual, but went on with my day. Unless this was another helo investigating, it must have been the one.

Not a good result. RIP guys.

A few updates on tonights news suggesting it was a mechanical failure. a large number of witnesses report seeing something come off the aircraft before it appeared to lose control and crash..:(

Hey Ultralights,

There was also mention of a wire strike - I thought it was pretty ambiguous as to whether it happened before or after the "bit" fell off.

Bad news :suspect:

If you look at Webtrack for Sydney 0900 - 0916 local time 22/7 you can see him fly east along the Parramatta river then turn north into the lane up the valley. He then weaves and sometimes backtracks as he proceeds up the valley. Scud running I suspect. The movements immediately prior to the crash are exceptional.

There is more commentary in this Rotorheads thread.

Bentleg, I noticed that on webtrak, unless it is being innaccurate, it showed the chopper climbing from 830ft~ to about 1600ft in the last few moments of the flight... :confused:

Would support the idea of inadvertent IMC and subsequent lost of control causing the main rotor to strike the tail, could explain the witness sightings of something falling from the aircraft.

How do you do that?

Dr :8

From the eyewitness report on the radio it sounded like the tail rotor separated for some reason and it just speared in.

Poor form
 

Didn't know either of those involved, but my sympathy to their families.

I was listening to this on area freq as I went overhead shortly afterwards. The rescue chopper was attempting to get overhead to winch a medic down to check if there were any survivors. He had to ask the 4 media choppers over the scence repeatedly - more than 3 times - to move clear of the site so they could safely get in; Wx conditions were very poor.

I know the media drivers have a job to do, but to deliberately obstruct rescue attempts (fatalities had not been confiremd at this stage) is very poor form. They are fellow aviator's lives you could have been jeopardising!! The rescue pilot made it clear he could not get in for a winch while visually separating from so many other aircraft in marginal visibilty. He asked you repeatedly to clear the area over and to the south but you ignored this and ATC requests. Very unprofessional and callous. I won't list callsigns but I hope you are ashamed of yourselves - I was disgusted.

Condolences to the 2 victims and families. Work colleagues of mine knew one of them personally :(

BUT WHAT I READ ABOUT MEDIA CHOPPERS ABOVE NOT MOVING OUT OF THE WAY FOR THE RESCUE CHOPPER ON 1ST INBOUND CALL IS UNBELIEVABLE !!!! I hope they are personally identified in a mission report put forward by the Rescue Chopper Pilot, and the media cop a fine for not allowing possible rescue attempts and life saving to be conducted !!! :*

KP

Guys, this has been a common problem with news helicopters. They have a job to do and have, at times, formed part of the SAR response; but more often than not they get in the way.

I have experienced this on firebombing ops, where we have had great difficultly separating news helos from bombers and FAC aircraft. Our last ditch procedure is simply to pack up and go home, leaving the news helos at the scene alone, and report to CASA, the police and the coroner. This puts the onus on the news pilot and leaves them open to prosecution on multiple levels.

Avid Aviator,

I doubt hat you would be criticised for naming and shaming the callsigns and company names of these unprofessional organisations.

We don't need this kind of trash in our industry.

Sure Tid, then he would be banned from PPrune for slandering persons/ companies etc.

No, probably not. He just has to post with no comment.

Recordings are kept on all of those frequencies. Facts are facts.

Is mentioning a callsign/Rego classified as slandering a company?

zanthrus, as Jack wrote... Posting without comment is fine. :O