R66 crash in Wikieup, Arizona, U.S.A., kills 2

[Hot and Hi]

Helicopter crash in Wikieup kills 2 | 12NEWS.com

Police release believed identities of helicopter crash victims | 12NEWS.com

The Robinson R66 helicopter crashed Thursday afternoon (23 June 2016) while flying from Prescott to Riverside, California. Search crews found the wreckage of the helicopter early Friday morning. Authorities said the helicopter burned after crashing.

Here is a picture of the crash site; it looks like the Mohave Desert:

2 dead after helicopter crash near Wikieup - azfamily.com 3TV | Phoenix Breaking News, Weather, Sport

Time of crash is reported "afternoon". The flight was reported overdue on Friday 12:22 am only. It is not clear whether it crashed during legal daylight still, or at night.

[nocarsgo]

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...94600284090101

Looks like some of the upper guys at Guidance. Sad to see this.

[givdrvr]

Very tragic RIP . Unsubstantiated chatter on another internet forum indicated early thoughts were of mast bumping. In any case, from the NTSB preliminary report:

The helicopter came to rest in hilly desert terrain. The debris field was about 750 yards long and 150 yards wide. One of the first pieces identified was the outboard 5 feet of a main rotor blade afterbody that had separated from the leading edge spar. The left side of the helicopter was more fragmented than the right, and left side cabin pieces and instruments were distributed throughout the early part of the debris field. The tail boom was about midway into the debris field. The left side/nose cabin was in the same approximate part of the debris field with a straight separation line across one side. The cabin came to rest inverted about 600 yards into the debris field, and was destroyed by a postcrash fire. The engine remained attached to the cabin. The remaining piece of main rotor blade was about the same distance into the debris field, but 85 yards left of the debris path centerline. The transmission, mast, and second main rotor blade separated as a unit, and were about 100 yards past the cabin area in the direction of the centerline of the debris field.

[Gordy]

Word on the street is to watch for a change of VNE.

[henra]

Originally Posted by givdrvr

Very tragic RIP . Unsubstantiated chatter on another internet forum indicated early thoughts were of mast bumping. In any case, from the NTSB preliminary report:

Well, after that sobering description of the wreckage path/distribution there is realistically very little doubt that it is another tragic case of Mast Bumping.

[[email protected]]

But Robinson won't move away from their MR head design, despite how susceptible it is to this phenomenon.

[vaqueroaero]

How does one gather mast bumping from that? It seems that another possibility would be a blade failure. It wouldn't be the first time that's happened in a Robinson product.

Tim Brown was a highly experienced pilot, a master of the utility world. He spent many hours sock pulling in the wire environment. That he died in straight and level flight is a cruel end to a highly accomplished career.

[Luther Sebastian]

Crab, Bell haven't moved from their 206 head design either.

[Reely340]

Crab, Bell haven't moved from their 206 head design either.

True. That design is why another one died recently on IOM, apparently from turbulence induced mast bumping. And that design will contiue to kill people in the 505.

They may be a lot to be said in favour of twin bladed tethering Bells, from space savings in the hangar, over cool blade sound till great Bell customer service. But tethering rotor heads are stupid, dangerous, early ages designs. It should not be possible to get a new aircraft design certified using them.

[Hot and Hi]

Originally Posted by vaqueroaero

That he died in straight and level flight is a cruel end to a highly accomplished career.

I agree. However straight and level at VNE can turn in a blink into exceedance of VNE. What do we actually know? Does anybody know the time of departure, estimated time of accident, t/o weight, and weather en-route?

[claudia]

Very tragic indeed and sad that people are still buying and flying these things.
Reely, agree with your theory on teetering heads but no one in authority is
listening. For some, price seems more important than safety.

[Bell_ringer]

A great many hours have been flown safely on semi-rigid rotor systems.
Recently, people seem to hit problems at speed in turbulent conditions. This would appear to be more of a problem with education than the architecture of the machine.

[claudia]

Yea Yea, Robinson offer this rather pathetic explanation / excuse also, but please
remember these were two very experienced guys. If it could happen to them it could happen
to most of us. --very very tragic indeed.
Surely a major re- design to that head and blade system is badly overdue. Please somebody
in authority take action before further unnecessary loss of life.

[AnFI]

claudia
i think that applies to twin engine given how dangerous they are
you can strike your boom in anything if you try hard enough

[Lala Steady]

claudia
i think that applies to twin engine given how dangerous they are
you can strike your boom in anything if you try hard enough

More trolling irrelevance AnFi?

Which other manufacturer has to run safety courses for its products because they kill so many unsuspecting pilots??

[krypton_john]

All helicopters kill their unsuspecting pilots if the unsuspecting pilots don't follow their training.

[FLY 7]

But some seem to catch out even the very best pilots.

[krypton_john]

Some or most?

[[email protected]]

Some or most?

Just the one seems to have the monopoly sadly. A design that can catch out the unwary newcomer is one thing but one that consistently takes out very experienced pilots as well is just a poor design.

Whilst all teetering head helos can be susceptible to mast bumping - few can get it badly enough to cut off the tail boom or skids with the frequency of that particular manufacturer.

[Lonewolf_50]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

Whilst all teetering head helos can be susceptible to mast bumping - few can get it badly enough to cut off the tail boom or skids with the frequency of that particular manufacturer.

Crab, I've never flown a Robinson. Would a vigorous "push over" (using substantial /rapid forward cyclic) be enough to unload the head and cause the kind of problem you are referring to there?