Sky Shuttle AW139 ditches in HK Harbour

[Runway101]

Not sure how accurate this is but here is a short animation of the event.

[island eagles]

Good Execution

Well done crew!!
By the way does anyone know who the pilots are?

[ReverseFlight]

fly911, no, reports are saying they heard the bang, then decided to auto onto the water. Only then they would inflate the bags according to the POH, not the other way round. However, don't know why one was deflated - could be the reason for it tipping upside down in the water.

Has any AW139 driver experienced compressor stall ? That could let off a bang too.

[Horror box]

A really classic analysis of what may have gone wrong form the "aviation expert" in that clip. Where do they find these people? I think they must just trawl the street. Another eyewitness claiming to have seen the "tail come off"! Don't you just love the press coverage of these events. That really gave me a chuckle. Can someone tell me what the "rotor hack" is?

[bb in ca]

A rotor hack is anyone who makes assumptions during a television interview before any facts are available!

[bondu]

A rotor hack is anyone who makes assumptions during a television interview before any facts are available
Plenty of those then!!!!

bondu

[Aser]

Hats off to the pilots


Now... where is the tail rotor???? lost due rescue efforts ???




Regards
Aser

[The Sultan]

Jokers Wild in #5 stated they had tail rotor problems. Like to see the photos of the ship floating with a complete tail rotor.

The Sultan

[sirhcttarp]

Guessing they didn't rush to hospital by chopper?!

[zalopilot]

Thoughts

If the 139 had the landing gear up, he should of been over the vtoss, and for a 15 min flight to Macau, not too much fuel, he could of continue flight with an engine failure. It had to be a worse problem.

[tottigol]

Zalo, ditching procedure requires the gear to be retracted.
Again, good job to the crew.

[spinwing]

Mmmm ...

Zalo .... for a water ditching gear should be retracted IAW RFM supplement 9 Pg 15.

Once he made the decision to ditch ... he stuck with it ...


From what I can see ... it LOOKs like the T/R gearbox has gone ... thrown a blade perhaps (and then the G'box?)... there ARE known issues with T/R blade cracks in the vicinity of blade grip area ?????

Mmmmmm

[Runway101]

[Brian Abraham]

Sort of leaves little doubt with that photo Runway. Bravo to the crew for a job extremely well done it would seem. Not Reuben per chance?

[gulliBell]

Brian, no, he retired over a year ago.

[zalopilot]

Thanks, you're right. But still looks like he lost the T/R.

[The Black Dragon]

Im 99.99% sure this was not from engine failure.

[Runway101]

More and more local news outlets are talking about a bird flying into the tail rotor, as pointed out by Silberfuchs above.

[R.OCKAPE]

local newspaper here this morning in HK says it was the chief pilot at the controls

[gulliBell]

....news reports also say the pilot is an Aussie, but the CP is not an Aussie....we all know to treat news reporting of these things with a grain of salt.