CHC Port Keats
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 321
Likes: 1
From: Earth
Chopper hits pole, flips on tarmac
SEVEN people were hurt when a helicopter hit a metal light pole at a remote airport yesterday, which flipped the craft, crushed the pilot's cabin, and sent off a deadly explosion of fibreglass and splintered rotor blades.
One man in a nearby Troopie was lucky to escape serious injury after debris punched though the windscreen like bullets, scratching his arm. A baggage handler loading one of two nearby metroliners is believed to have suffered cuts and a broken hand.
The crash happened at Wadeye's airstrip about 4.30pm.
"The first of the blades hitting the pole shot (the body of the helicopter) around 90 degrees and it half crushed the cabin. I heard the noise and we all just ran, ducked.
"The debris - the fibre glass, the blades - kept coming across the tarmac. Three of us straight away stepped behind a wall."
He and others who had been waiting to board onto the second plane ran to help the helicopter's occupants.
"The (pilot) cabin was crushed almost to their laps," Mr Irwin said. "They were very lucky."
Police and fire services attended the scene. Police said the pilot, two crew members, three passengers and a person nearby were taken to Wadeye's clinic with minor injuries.
Wadeye resident Mary Ayres, 60, saw the windscreen holes in the Troopie that Brother Vince was sitting in at the time.
"It was just like two bullets had just been shot through," she said.
Eyewitness - contractor Graham Irwin, 52 - was actually taking photos of the Super Puma as it was taxi-ing around the metroliners.
He caught a one-in-a-million shot of the blades as they bashed into the light pole - and then had to fling himself out of the way of deadly projectiles.
"It was a horrific accident and a miracle nothing happened, that no one was killed," he said.
SEVEN people were hurt when a helicopter hit a metal light pole at a remote airport yesterday, which flipped the craft, crushed the pilot's cabin, and sent off a deadly explosion of fibreglass and splintered rotor blades.
One man in a nearby Troopie was lucky to escape serious injury after debris punched though the windscreen like bullets, scratching his arm. A baggage handler loading one of two nearby metroliners is believed to have suffered cuts and a broken hand.
The crash happened at Wadeye's airstrip about 4.30pm.
"The first of the blades hitting the pole shot (the body of the helicopter) around 90 degrees and it half crushed the cabin. I heard the noise and we all just ran, ducked.
"The debris - the fibre glass, the blades - kept coming across the tarmac. Three of us straight away stepped behind a wall."
He and others who had been waiting to board onto the second plane ran to help the helicopter's occupants.
"The (pilot) cabin was crushed almost to their laps," Mr Irwin said. "They were very lucky."
Police and fire services attended the scene. Police said the pilot, two crew members, three passengers and a person nearby were taken to Wadeye's clinic with minor injuries.
Wadeye resident Mary Ayres, 60, saw the windscreen holes in the Troopie that Brother Vince was sitting in at the time.
"It was just like two bullets had just been shot through," she said.
Eyewitness - contractor Graham Irwin, 52 - was actually taking photos of the Super Puma as it was taxi-ing around the metroliners.
He caught a one-in-a-million shot of the blades as they bashed into the light pole - and then had to fling himself out of the way of deadly projectiles.
"It was a horrific accident and a miracle nothing happened, that no one was killed," he said.
Last edited by Heliringer; 21st July 2011 at 23:33.
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 768
Likes: 45
From: Montreal
Pichers pichers, here's a whole string of 'em including the "money shot" of the first bite of the blade into the pole ( a really big, Texas sized pole, not the skinny gnarly ones you usually find in Australia).
Joined: Jul 2002
Aviation Qualifications: ATPL(H)
Posts: 3,054
Likes: 57
From: UK
There's a couple more in the same sequence here:
Chopper crash at Wadeye - Photo Gallery | Northern Territory News | ntnews.com.au
Chopper crash at Wadeye - Photo Gallery | Northern Territory News | ntnews.com.au
Last edited by Bravo73; 22nd July 2011 at 01:55.
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 9
Likes: 0
From: Perth, Australia
Geneva Conflict you forgot to cut and paste the remainder of the CHC email you received, which I've kindly done for you below...
"The information contained in this message is confidential and is intended for the addressee only. If you have received this message in error or there are any problems please notify the originator immediately. The unauthorised use, disclosure, copying or alteration of this message is strictly forbidden."
"The information contained in this message is confidential and is intended for the addressee only. If you have received this message in error or there are any problems please notify the originator immediately. The unauthorised use, disclosure, copying or alteration of this message is strictly forbidden."
Joined: Sep 2000
Aviation Qualifications: Military (Retired)
Posts: 206
Likes: 0
From: Asia Pacific.
So head case - aside from showing your superiority, what was the purpose of "kindly" posting that?
I'd suggest to you that the news was already out there, and Geneva Conflict posted the contents of the email because it actually showed CHC and its response in a good light. And there were no significant injuries.
Sure he might have been naiive, but you are...umm... the type of chap who sits at a bar alone with his mates?
I'd suggest to you that the news was already out there, and Geneva Conflict posted the contents of the email because it actually showed CHC and its response in a good light. And there were no significant injuries.
Sure he might have been naiive, but you are...umm... the type of chap who sits at a bar alone with his mates?
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 833
Likes: 1
From: Canberra, Australia
I imagine that there are some smiles, as wide as the rotor diameter of the Super Puma, on the faces of those that were recently sacked by the new management
P1
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 9
Likes: 0
From: Perth, Australia
The purpose of my post was to point out that he is in breach of Company policy regarding confidential emails. Regardless of what may be out there or in what light it may portray CHC and it's reaction to the incident, it is not his or your call to make.
Your attempt to justify an indefensible position says a lot more about you and your professional ethics, than my lack of friends does about me...
Your attempt to justify an indefensible position says a lot more about you and your professional ethics, than my lack of friends does about me...
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 315
Likes: 0
From: Up here, but not for long
Your attempt to justify an indefensible position says a lot more about you and your professional ethics, than my lack of friends does about me...
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 17
Likes: 0
From: Darwin
Nasty little place around that time of day is Port Keats. Hard enough to taxi past 3 or 4 cessna 400s...
That metro looks like TFG.. Anyone have pics of the other one? Anyone know how much damage was caused to them? i can't imagine it being anything more than a couple of holes?
I fly fixed wing, leave that tricky chopper stuff to you blokes!Whats an old super puma worth?
That metro looks like TFG.. Anyone have pics of the other one? Anyone know how much damage was caused to them? i can't imagine it being anything more than a couple of holes?
I fly fixed wing, leave that tricky chopper stuff to you blokes!
Whats an old super puma worth?
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 5,174
Likes: 7
From: UK
Almost forty years ago a Puma of the Royal Air force taxiied into a hangar door support post. The result was exactly the same as far as the reaction by the aircraft was concerned. The big difference was that as it fell over the rotor head picked up a long length of Gannet (Coiled barbed wire) and wound the whole lot around it like a big prickly doughnut.
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 12
Likes: 0
From: australia
Blade strike
We had a similar incident when I was with Blackhawks in Townsville....while operating out of Williamtown Airforce base we had 4 Blackhawks operating out of a fighter revetment (bomb arming point) at the Western end of the field...apprently there was no room for us down at air movements section dur to Mil C130 traffic...going in and out....only a matter of time before we had exactly the same incident...main rotor strike on a revement wall, no taxi way markings was a contributing factor along with in appropriate operating areas for helicopters....crew very lucky....
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 1,957
Likes: 0
From: Australia
Stolen? No, had to do something to gain access in order to move the furniture in.