Mobile phone cause emergency
 

Found over on Rumours and News

Mobile phone forces emergency landing of helicopter

A CIVILIAN helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing at Baldonnel airbase outside Dublin after a mobile phone became jammed in its controls in a bizarre incident.

It happened after a mobile phone belonging to the pilot fell off the rear seat of the helicopter and slipped underneath the cockpit floor becoming wedged against the rudder controls.

A concrete runway at Baldonnel was rapidly flooded with a blanket of foam by the Air Corps crash rescue service as the helicopter pilot used up fuel before attempting a landing.

After the pilot sought advice from Air Corps helicopter pilots, the British registered Eurocopter EC-120 light helicopter landed on the runway before turning uncontrollably and coming to a halt off the foam blanket without damage.

The emergency landing was revealed yesterday in a report published by the Air Accident Investigation Unit of the Department of Public Enterprise.

The report recommended that the helicopter manufacturers, Eurocopter, should consider amending the flight manual to point out the danger of lose articles in the cabin entering the underfloor area and jamming the controls.

:o :o :o

I think you'll find a regular contributor on this forum might be able to shed some light on this, he has already (candidly and with humility)on a previous topic relating to tail rotor problems.

The story about the EC120 is now months [not days] old.

It had nothing to do with mobile phones. It was simple FOD and it could have been the weekly groceries [but was not].

That said the matter is being considered for a mod to reduce the chances of lose items fouling the controls of the EC120. If the occupants had secured all items [as usual] this matter would not have arisen.

Rudder controls?

Guess he's lucky he didn't jam the elevator controls otherwise he could never have landed LOL.

I am about to fly the EC-120 and was unaware of this incident. Is there a crash comic report of it, or can any one tell me how the FOD was able to access and jam the controls? PANews: what mod is being considered?

I will have to pass on the exact technicalities on this one.

The tale was word of mouth and I was not shown the why's and wherefores.

I take it that the 'discarded' mobile slid across the cockpit floor and became trapped in between the floor and the pedals but as I am insufficiently familiar with the type I do not know whether they sit forward of the floor pan or have slots.

The options for a mod [if taken] would depend upon the pedal layout. The simplest might be to glue the mobile in the pilots pocket!

Sorry I could not be more specific.

helmet fire , e-mil me on [email protected]

See, told yah!

Have been shown the technicalities of the incident by a Eurocopter mech. Unlike most helicopters such as the AS350, the Bubble does not join to the floor on the EC-120. Where as the AS350 chin bubble is sealed from the bubble to the floor to prevent objects entering the area under the floor, the EC120's does not. FOD phones are therefore able to slide forward (what sort of attitudes would be required?) and go over the front lip of the floor. It then falls to the bottom of the bubble which is curved. The curve slides the FOD rearward and under the floor where it can access your tail rotor controls, stuff your day, and give you a real time experience from which to argue about yaw control malfunctions on Pprune. :eek:

No mod out yet. We are temporarily fitting a bit of foam rubber in the gap to stop those pesky phones, etc.

Reminds me of a crew that came back complaining that the engine would suddenly not make anywhere near spec power - as discovered on a hot/high departure. :eek: Collective was hitting upstop well before engine temp/N1/Tq or bleed limits reached. :confused:

Upstop was found to be copilot's camera hanging from his seat!!! :rolleyes:

PS: whatsarunaway no response recieved from you as yet, but thanks for the offer.

Helmet Fire,

Good story about the copilots belongings fouling the controls. There's a very senior officer at the RAF Station where our school in the UK is based, who can top it with his own experience during the ongoing nastiness a few decades ago in Oman. His co's Kalashnikov (for which no stowage arrangements had been manufactured) fell from beside his seat onto the collective during an anti-SAM spiral descent. The problem only became apparent when he tried to open the throttle and raise the lever to arrest the app. 6000 fpm downwards hurtle. They couldn't raise the lever, and the photos taken of the crashsite afterwards show that the pilot was exceptionally fortunate to have survived (..also thanks to the evac people and the exceptional Field Surgical Team at UAG, as always credited by aforementioned Sen Offr).

The moral is still the same, foreign objects and flying controls don't mix.

http://www.irlgov.ie/tec/aaiu/2001Re...202001-007.htm
incident happened a year ago (20/9/00)