Might aswel add my 2 cents..

Ive watched it a few times now and it looks to me the retreating blades have clipped something.. The aircraft banks to the left very quickly before yawing into a spin!

Picture of the Helicopter
 

http://images3.jetphotos.net/img/2/4...1221817724.jpg

Crashed and exploded at 1630 18 Sep 2008. It is just in between the house in the background and a school. The carpark that the Heli is half in had been full of kids just one hour earlier. and is right in the centre of the village. The quick thinking school caretaker pulled the pilot out to safety and he only got minor injuries, two other people were hurt in the incident. Lucky Escape or what

Some of the lamp posts in the area where heli was landing also have cctv cameras, probably a lot more footage out there.The Sky footage I would think will be of big help to the AAIU. Also, by the look of the CCTV footage there are no shortage of eye witnesses to the accident.

Deffo PP

It will be the talk of meath for the next week anyway.. The Residents will become ''Helicopter Experts'' in the pub tonight after a few guinness on what happened :E

I think I will stay quiet on this one and see what happens.

:oh:

whatsarunaway,

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/P4190012.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/P4190012.jpg

Was it you flying? Aren't you connected with this aircraft?

If you were, can you pick my lottery numbers for tonight? :}

FNW

winning one lottery is enough for the pilot don't you think? :O

Nah,
i was flying that machine up to about five months ago. spent four happy
years flying her. But for reasons unknown to me they decided to get a
different pilot. Im not going to rant, just happy nobody was hurt.

FNW thats me flying in the photo infront of the hangar wheels up for a photo
shoot,before it was re-registered to N399BH, and before anyone gives out, i was on my own and was in hover at 48
percent tq so engine failure would have had time to put wheels down and
land without going oei. what a cool machine.


RIP sn760311 N89WC/N399BH

Lets not turn this into a mud slinging match. Let AAIU do their job and hopefully we can all learn a lesson from the outcome.

agreed! Must have been nice to fly though, lovely machine

Awsome shot..

Dam thats a beautiful machine..

FNW.. Is she a C model like haugheys? I hear hes looking a pilot to fly his ship!

Maxvne,

The CCTV doesn't seem to support the explanation offered.

You know what they say "Pay peanuts..........."

Glad the guy was already.

Biz.

Davy07,

No its was a B model.

Haughey's two new pilots have only recently finished their type ratings so be surprised if they are leaving so soon with a big bond hanging over them. But it's a funny old world!

FNW

Davy07.............Look even closer at the Sky Video and you see debris coming from the TR, would also explain the sudden yaw.

Having studied the photo of the burned out wreckage on post no.45 I firmly believe the owner of the house in the background will end up with a serious damp problem around the his window and in the single-storey extension if he doesn't get his guttering cleaned out!:p JJ

If it wasn’t for passengers
 

If it wasn’t for passengers I reckon a high percentage of accidents wouldn’t happen.
While I sympathise with the pilot involved and he must be going through a tough time in his head.

The following is in my opinion the sequence of events that might of happened.
And I’m sure most pilots could relate to it.

Got the call to collect Mr X in Dundalk and drop to Bettystown
When he asked where he would land he was told that he owned a hotel down there and plenty of helicopters landed at this site before.
Pilot makes his approach and decides that the site is to tight and drops the passenger on the beach.
Now he’s left with the problem how will I collect them?
After the passenger has departed he decides that he will try one more approach into the hotel.
The video tells the rest.

Before ye have a go at me and tell me to wait for the report
I don’t believe that the above problems that we all experience in the corporate environment will be addressed.

The problem being that sometimes we let passengers dictate our actions.
If a pilot turned around to his passenger (who for example is a developer) and told him how to build houses.
The pilot would be told politely to stick to flying.

The most important thing is not to let the passengers dictate the pace.
It has happened to me and I have fallen into the trap of being dictated to.

While I am sure the Air Accident will do a professional job within their remit.

The question still remains.
Why do pilots put themselves under so much pressure and have passengers determine the outcome ?

I know that the pilot has the final call but I believe sometimes passengers are just as much to blame.

The above scenario is possible. The passengers on board had been a property developer and the hotel owner. They were to hold their meeting in Dublin but the pilot had not been advised of this and had no flight plan. He dropped them on the beach but was to wait for them to finish the meeting. He didn't wish to remain on the beach and might have been advised to park it in the hotel car park. However, anyone in this position might have thought twice before trying to manoever between two buildings, little space and aerial wires and lamposts. The pilot should not have entered this area. Perhaps he was under pressure and/or inexperienced but his training and common sense should have told him otherwise. I appreciate none us know for sure what happened and that hindsight is great but at the end of the day he endangered many lives by doing what he did. If it is a case of engine trouble then that just questions his reasons for moving towards the village and not remain over a quiet unpopulated beach! BTW the first impact was his rudder hitting a lampost which in turn caused yaw, dip and crash.

Bond
 

Floater,

What's a big bond ?

Miracle escape in helicopter inferno - National News, Frontpage - Independent.ie

Picture of landing site from above.

Don't you just love that? An onboard oxygen bottle exploded. Trust the media. What was that bottle for, ops over 10k'?
From above, that landing site looks tighter than a tight thing, even in a robbie, never mind a 76.

Anyone know the pilot or his background?

I've been questioning his motives for going in there all day and still can't understand a logical reasoning for taking such a decision to land in there - it's just lunacy.

Helicopters are being treated like taxis, "ara yea, park her up in the car park there with the other cars, twill be grand"

I was at a corporate event near Kenmare there recently, two EC130s and a 206 were called in to move 40 people from a VERY large pier to a hotel in Killarney, absolutely everything movable in the nearest 20-30m was removed from the pier, the place was cordoned off and the helicopters were very professional in coordinating their efforts, dispite being from 2 different companies (the EC130s were together).. every effort was made to ensure that safety was the priority (I can see people firing back at me because this was a pier - I didn't make that decision, but if you saw the pier, it's a very big place, you could land 4 helis in there safely, it's like a pier/car park).

It looked like you could barely swing a robbie in the space he was landing in.. was there any foresight?? I'm not an experienced pilot, I'm still finishing off my qualifications but I can still have the common sense to see it's not safe there - jesus, I'd prefer to land in a field and tell them to get a taxi if they were so inclined.

I'm not trying to slate the Pilot, he probably did the best he could after he got into difficulty, but the question really sticks out as to why he would try and land such a large helicopter in there.. it's a bloody town - "what if anything went wrong".. I agree with the last post there by OEI and Still Flying, the pilot has the final say - he's in charge after all

Scottishterrier,

Bond is the training bond for their S76 type rating course. Haughey Air introduced a 2 year training bond and an increased notice period to stop the horses bolting. i.e give 2 years employment or pay back the remaining cost of the money spent on their training. The outstanding cost usually reduces by 1/24th for each month served. I have heard of bonds only reducing in halves and even some requiring total pay back if you leave before the term of the bond.

FNW

There's an aerial photo in some of todays Irish national papers showing the landing site (link provided by jumparound), and what remains of the 76.Has anybody who has seen the photo in question any idea what approach path was flown to this site.:confused:

I live right across the road from the crash site.from here you can see a large impact mark on the roof above the glass wall.Then what seem like rotor scrapes all down along the front wall of the building.It looks as if he took off from the beach, didnt gain enough altiude and possibly struck the roof before loosing control.He certainly cliped the rotors off somthing much higher before trying to land it at its final resting place.Theres a piece of the rotor blades wedged into the roof of a building behind the flat where I live.its a good 50 meters away and the piece would have had to fly over a 3 story building to land there!!masive impact.:ouch: YouTube - Helicopter Crashes into Hotel in Ireland

YouTube - katastrofa helikoptera w bettystown

bellow

The video shows the machine in a hover before the crash so your explanation is unlikely.

The aerial photo would appear to indicate that the crash happened in one corner of the car park. Did he come above the gap between the hotel and lower houses only to find the open central part of the car park occupied by cars/people? :confused:

Size of site
 

Has it crossed anyones mind that the intended landing site was, how should I put it, tiny? Google Earth put's it at 13.75 meters width and the rotor diameter is 13.21 meters.

A couple of us stated/questioned earlier, it seems unbelievable he would choose such a spot.

According to S76 specifications, the rotor diameter is as follows

44 ft 0 in (13.41 m)

Ouch - tight (Obviously Google Earth isn't going to be gospel but it would be close enough regardless)

I must make an addition to that.. overall length (clearance needed) is 52 ft 6 in (16.0 m).. so he was really really stuck for space if the Google Earth calculations are accurate. Putting these precise measurements aside for a minute, it's far too tight to even contemplate even setting down in such a confined area, as the dramatic results of the events have proven (I haven't forgotten the possibility of engine failure and other contributing factors which we may not be aware of at this point)..

It still should never have happened, is that fair to say?

based on what we have seen and heard so far (video,photos,eye witness) it would'nt take a rocket scientist to figure out what happened. Thankfully for all involved (public especially) no fatalitys occurred this time. I hope all potential and current pilots can learn from this reckless avoidable incident(roof top landings included). you rarely get a second chance when it all goes wrong.


The negative publicity does nothing for the industrys future, just provides tomorrows fish & chip paper and a bigger stick for the anti-helicopter lobby.

Let's be a bit more professional in our approach before we are scanning the obituarys for names familiar to us all.

One of the things I find impressive about the video is the two intrepid folks who took cover momentarily then ran straight to the crashed helicopter despite the aircraft being on fire.

My hat is off to them!

God Bless the ordinary person who does extraordinary feats at great risk to themselves....for total strangers!

Here here.

That will be WAS for sale, I guess....:E

This kind of thing makes me so angry. I have had the honor of flying with some very talented and professional pilots in the republic over the years and this accident will bring nothing but scrutiny and criticism to an otherwise very safe and well run community..:D:D

I have no intention of speculating about the cause, but when all is said and done and the individuals background and experience have been made public and the AAIB report is in...... Well don't expect too many surprises :=

I hate ranting in public, but this effects all of us in the helicopter world, so I feel as a 30 year veteran in aviation I have earned the right to a wee bit of a wayward comment.... PRAT......

I'm with you Griffo...:ugh:

crash
 

just like to let you all know that the pilot is prob one of the most experienced in ireland , just for all you speculators, which you will find out in the report.!! that was not the intended landing site were the cctv footage was.!! he was trying to deal with the engine fire were he was, couldnt move forward because there was a woman standing there looking at him.!! tail clipped something and the rest is the rest. you will notice that the wheels are not even down in the footage, he tried to make the beach but couldnt, cockpit filled with smoke very quickly ..!!

Hope all is well with the Pilot and full marks from walking away from what ever happened:D

Coatesy - you beat me to it!

Will you listen to yourselves! Is there no end to the bull**** about accidents? I have tried over on Rumours & News but to no avail.

Having read the thread through from the start, I can make a reasonable guess that the majority of you are neither rotary nor fixed-wing pilots.

Google Earth again! Now giving us the measurements for the "landing site".
As I said in another post earlier, YOU HAVE NO IDEA where the intended landing site was, nor do you have an idea about the pilot's intentions or what was going on at the time.

We now have details that it was an engine fire. And now the comments are starting about that. No one knows why there was a fire, until a proper investigation is done and then we MIGHT find out.

And what is the point in comparing R44s to S-76s for Christ's sake. It's like comparing a 172 to a Jumbo - totally different ball-game.
Ah, now that I type this, I have just realised that the Robinson is featured in Flight Simulator, isn't it?

Enough said - we all know who we're dealing with.

good man Farrell, exactly my point, the only one who knows what was going on was the person in the right seat..!!!! and might i add , I know to be an excellent pilot..!