Rest In Peace Yarnell Hill Crew...

My base machine looks just like the 206L

On 6/28/2013, approximately between 1230 hrs to 1300, I witnessed "Brand X" Aviation Company’s Bell 206L3, N****, crash in the Clark Fork River approx. 3.5 to 4 nm South West of the Missoula Airport (KMSO). The weather at the time was VFR, calm wind, and approximately 30*C. Below is my statement of the events with this incident.

I was conducting a flight evaluation for the Pilot, for this coming fire season. We took off approx. 1200 hrs from the Minuteman FBO ramp of the KMSO airport. We flew to the mountains SW of the airport (approx. 4 to 5 nm) to conduct mountain-flying technics and confined area operations. After completing those tasks we were going to conduct water dropping operations, for the evaluation, with a water bucket and a 150’ synthetic long line. As briefed before the flight started from KMSO, I asked Mr. Pilot to land on a large sand/gravel bar on the north shore of the river, due to aircraft performance planning, and I would observe his longline/bucket work from the ground. The landing was normal and uneventful. Mr. Pilot then exited the aircraft to prep it for bucket operations while I stayed inside the aircraft and guarded the controls. After Mr. Pilot set up the long line and bucket, we then ops checked the bucket for proper operation and then we checked the aircraft’s cargo hook twice, everything was working correctly. Mr. Pilot then re-entered the aircraft, took over the controls and I climbed out to stand on the sand/gravel bar, to be able to observe his bucket work. Before I exited the aircraft, Mr. Pilot and I re-briefed what maneuvers and procedures I needed him to perform for the bucket part of the evaluation.
The first water dip and water drop was uneventful, other than coming in a little steep and putting the control head in the water. The second water dip Mr. Pilot seemed to be coming into the dip vertically from a higher height than I would have come in, (if I had been flying), and the aircraft seemed to be settling with power for a brief moment as the bucket and control head entered the water, then Mr. Pilot recovered, and did another successful water drop. The third water dip approach, again seemed to be initiated from a higher than normal altitude to the water, and his water drop was again satisfactory. It seemed to me that he was trying to fly a little too fast thru the water bucket part of the evaluation, all water bucket maneuvers seemed to be rushed. Mr. Pilot went back for his fourth water dip, this time he initiate this approach to the water from higher altitude than the other 3 previous dip approaches. I would estimate he initiated this approach from approximately 250 ft AGL (bucket height). As he was coming down vertically, I noticed that the aircraft started to settle with power at a fairly quick rate and I knew he was in trouble. The bucket, control head, and line started entering the water rapidly, and then Mr. Pilot dropped the nose of the aircraft and tried to get out of the settling by flying forward (upstream), the bucket filled with water and became a big anchor and pivot point resulting in the aircraft to start to dynamically roll over longitudinally forward. The aircraft’s nose was in a downward angle toward the water. Then it appeared that Mr. Pilot pulled in a lot of power to try to stop his descent. At this point I could hear what sounded like the rotor RPM slow down and the engine spooling up then compressor stalling (making loud banging noises) and the aircraft spun one and a half times to the right (LTE), ending up facing down river. At about the same time as the aircraft spin occurred, it sounded like Mr. Pilot closed the throttle of the aircraft or the engine spooled down and the aircraft descended vertically into the river rapidly from about 15 to 20 feet above the water level, on the south side of the river. After that the main rotor came down and struck the tail boom just in front of the tail rotor. I ran down the north shore of the river (a lot easier written than done) until I was abeam the aircraft and Mr. Pilot. I could not reach the aircraft because it was on the other side of the river from me (100 yards) and the water was running too fast and was too deep for me to cross. I could see Mr. Pilot sitting in the aircraft and moving around. I yelled over to him to see if he was ok and he replied back that he was ok. Then he started to make cell phone calls while sitting in the aircraft, to people who needed to know of the incident. I noticed that the bucket seemed to be still attached to the aircraft, because I could see it downstream 150 ft of the aircraft, immerged in the river.
The pilot experienced three different emergencies thru this incident. He went from settling with power to dynamic rollover then to LTE, after that, is when gravity took over. The pilot was ok, but ended up with two cracked vertebrates. I asked the pilot later that day after the incident, why he didn’t punch off the bucket, he said he tried but realized he was pushing the wrong button. End of Statement.


Helicopter Inspector Pilot
US Forest Service, Region 1

Lessons learned and advice from the helicopter crash landing in the Clark Fork River, Missoula Montana, on 6/28/2013.

Professional Development:
When the pilot called me after he left the hospital we discussed why he didn’t jettison his bucket. He told me that he tried, but realized he was hitting the wrong button. This brings to light that pilots need to get in the cockpit every once in a while and go thru practice emergency training, and switch-ology on the ground. I call this Professional Development. We as pilots are paid by our bosses to be professionals at what we do, and we all know there is plenty of sitting on our butt time on most fires. I always made it a point to try to spend about an hour per day doing professional development with my crew, instead of just sitting on my butt and seeing what the end of the internet looked liked or playing games. We would get in the cockpit and go over run-up procedures, pre-flights, contracts, emergency procedures, etc., normally in the morning, before the heat of the day. I would recommend this practice to all flight crews, as it will only make you more proficient at what you do.

Don’t rush:
Another lesson to take away from this is to not get in a hurry when flying the bucket or other missions, and never out-fly your own limitations. This pilot seemed to be rushing thru his water dips and drops. Pilots need to remember to not exceed their limitations, we need to fly up to our limits but be disciplined enough not to exceed them or you are opening the door for mistakes and failures. An old saying from my logging days to make pilots slow down, make deliberate inputs, and improve hook accuracy was, “If you think you are going too slow, then slow down.” You will be surprised how much truth is in that statement.

Approach and set-up to a dip site:
Make sure to not come in too high and try to salvage the approach to the water source. Most of the time it is not going to work out very pretty, as it was with the result of this incident. If you are coming into your dip site and the approach is not correct, i.e. too high, just do a go around and come back into the dip with a proper and controlled approach. Remember go-arounds are free and incidents are expensive. I would much rather tell Air Attack that I need to spend a few extra minutes going around than call my boss and tell them I just bent up his helicopter.

Comfort level and pride:
The PIC has the last and final say for anything involving their aircraft. If the PIC isn’t comfortable then it is their responsibility to speak up and say so. Pilots are paid for 90% decision making ability and 10% flying ability. As a PIC, type A personality, one of the hardest things to do is turn down a mission, or say you can’t accomplish what is expected of you. We hate to accept failure and some have taken that pride to the grave. Remember, there is no mission we are asked to do that is worth dying for. It takes a very professional pilot to stand their ground and stay within their comfort level regardless of the pressure they my feel from outside sources, but in the long run, that is a pilot who will keep himself and his passenger alive and will be well respected in the industry.

PPE:
Just before we went on this flight that resulted in the aircraft crash landing in the river, the pilot and I were standing out by the aircraft going over our passenger brief. The pilot looked over and saw me wearing my PFD (Personal Floatation Device), and said; “I guess you are going to make me wear my PFD too” and I said “Yup”. I bet he was glad he was wearing it. The aircraft landed in only 3 ˝ feet of water, but with the end of run- off still here, the water was running very swiftly. If you were to fall in the current, it would be way to strong to swim against. Also after standing there and watching the aircraft go from normal, to out of control flight and crashing in the river, all in a matter of less than a minute, it made me realize that there is no way anyone would have the time or means to put on their PFD after an incident sequence of events has started. I was on shore when the incident took place but I still used mine. I had to walk out to meet Rescue Personnel, and I was on an island. For me to finally get off of the swampy island and to safety, I had to forge a small river that was 3 ˝ feet deep, 80 yards across and fast running water. I was tired by the time I had to cross that river and I put my PFD back on cause had I slipped on the slippery rocks, I was too tired to swim and fight the current. I figured if I slipped I was just going to pop my life vest and float down with the current until I could get to safely on a shoreline again. My take away from this is, “Always wear your PFD while doing over water operations, cause you don’t have time to put it on.” Having it near-by you in the cockpit and the thought process of, after I get in the water I will grab it and put it on, is not good enough. Plus I need mine to make sure I could make back out to safe area.

Being Prepared:
I took my cell phone out of my pocket and left it in the office before the flight. I knew it was going to be hot and didn’t want it in my pocket getting all sweaty. If I had my cell phone with me, I would have been able to call 911 and my supervisor to inform them of the incident. Also I would have been able to call the pilot in the crashed aircraft to communicate with him, instead of us yelling to each other across the river as we did. I learned to always take a means of communication with you when ever possible, even if it makes you a little uncomfortable.
Since we were going on a short flight, only about 5 miles from the airport, and I knew it was only going to take about 35 to 45 minutes for the checkride, I elected to not take any water with me. I also knew it was going to be one of the hottest days of the year so far. But what could go wrong? After the incident I was surely wishing I had brought some water with me. I ended up on the opposite side of the river from the rescue crews and the river was too far, deep, and swift to swim across. The rescue crews said, I need to walk out to a road about a mile to the north (it was more than a mile); there would be an EMT and Police Officer waiting for me there. Well the piece of land I was on was an island that was mostly swamp, thick vegetation, and 3-foot tall grass, making it very hard to walk thru without a lot of effort. It took me 2 hours to hike out in my flight suit, helmet and PFD. I was carrying the helmet and PFD, but had to keep my flight suit zipped up, and sleeves down, due to all the ticks. With the heat of the day combined with the physical exertion of walking thru that thick swampy area, I got very thirsty and exhausted. If I would have had to walk for another hour or two thru that area in that heat I would have been facing heat exhaustion or stroke, there is no doubt in my mind about that.
So the moral of the story is to always make sure you are prepared. The aircraft had a survival kit but I was separated from the aircraft with no means to access the kit. Had I only brought my cell phone and a bottle of water, I would have been much better off. Neither one of them really would have been a real inconvenience to carry.

I hope that by reading this, it will be a wake up call to some of you and we can turn this un-fortunate incident into a learning event and bring some good out of it.

Now if you had just left yer Wallet back at the base you could have hauled twice as much water!

Helicopters dropped 162,000 gallons of water on the fire on Tuesday. Air tankers carrying fire retardant are also being used to battle the blaze.