The crew of Helimer 207 has been honoured with the "medal of civil protection" in acknowledgement of risking their lives to safe others.

The body of captain José Luis López Alcalá has been recovered. His funeral will take place tomorrow. Meanwhile the vessel "Clara Campoamor" is still working on recovering the other two crew members.
This progress is taking time, because the submarine is only allowed to dive twice a day and only for a maximum of 15 minutes (if I have understood the article correctly).

http://www.cope.es/file_upload/image...6422291536.gif

Video footage of the sub
 

YouTube - Imágenes del Helimer 207 obtenidas por el ROV

You can see an underwater video of the wreackage Rescatado el cadáver del piloto del helicóptero que cayó al mar en Almería | Andalucía | elmundo.es

Please do not make wild especulations on this.

We hope we will know some solid facts soon.

Tomorrow will take place funeral for one of our colleagues, I hope the bodies of the other two can be recovered soon.

From the video footages, it looks like the tail rotor is intact...could it be that it was not turning on impact. Just a view...

Does anybody know the link to the spanish "NTSB"?

Homepage of the Spanish "NTSB":
CIAIAC - Collegiate Body - Ministerio de Fomento

Vaibronco

The english version is CIAIAC - Collegiate Body - Ministerio de Fomento

I think the Spanish version of the site has a lot more on it, but I haven't looked for some months.

GS

Human Error??...maybe...it's too soon for that conclusions.

The fact is that SASEMAR pilots average flight time is less than 100 hours per year (including missions)
Really poor training.
NO CRM course for crews.
NO EGRESS training.

Perrito Piloto,

even though (as far as I know) your figures are correct, I wouldnt jump to any conclusions for now. I understand you are just trying to say what could have happened, but one crew member and the whole wreckage is still deep down in the water, so lets be patient.

By the way, this article quotes a member of civil protection saying "it cant be human error, because the crew consisted of two pilots." :ugh:

Tecnología - Enterrado el comandante del helicóptero 'Helimer 207' siniestrado en Almería - ADN.es

Also INAER standards are very low....

It is important that it is not taken the wrong way, I am sure the crew were both conscientious and professional but I totally agree that Inaer does not have the proper training in place for crews, proper courses or enough flying hours per year.

I won't speculate on the cause of the accident, however, I am not sure that any amount of training would have helped this unfortunate crew.

Lunar

Got a message last night from a contact there that the body of Kevin Holmes was recovered yesterday. At least the families can have some closure.

Ned

Captain José Luis López Alcalás funeral took place today. Iñigo Vallejo is still down there, lets hope they can recover his body tomorrow.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/epa..._lXcpfg?size=l

Respects.:(

Hi,
Now that I'm back at home after some days in Almeria , I'd like to really thank you all that worried about me and my friends.


I hope you all understand I'm not going to make any kind of comment...

Best regards and fly safe.
Aser

Sorry to butt in. Am living here, not far from Sam's village of adoption, Lenteji, Granada, Spain. His body was cremated in Almuñécar. The newspaper today reported that recovery efforts to retrieve the last body have been called of because of adverse weather. I cannot give you any technical data, I'm afraid, which is what this forum is obviously about, but I do speak Spanish, having lived here for 30 years, so if anybody has a reasonably short piece of Spanish text that they don't understand, I will translate it.

Sam, as he was known locally, was widely respected in this small village, with just over 500 inhabitants.

Cheers
Hughmac

One of the newspaper reports I have read says it ran out of fuel. Surely that wouldnt be the case. Doesnt the AW139 have all sorts of warning systems if the fuel is getting low. ??

Ned

They were returning to base after training. They would probably have wanted fuel to prepare the aircraft for a possible mission after training, to minimise response time in case of a callout. Standard practice methinks.
It does not mean they were running their tanks dry.

There are more examples of less than accurate media reporting all over this forum..:rolleyes: makes you wonder what else they make up in the newspapers.

The low fuel scenario will refer to what borja said earlier. They might have advised ATC about their further intentions after landing.
Something like "after landing request taxi to refuelling station" is sugar for a newspaper journalist.

Nevertheless, this is what the flight and training manual states about low fuel warning systems in the AW139:

The fuel quantity gauging system is composed of four
capacity probes, a fuel computer unit and a fuel low level
sensor for each tank.
When the fuel quantity falls below the low level sensor
the caution 1 or 2 FUEL LOW is provided to the MFD.

CAS CAUTION MESSAGE:

"FUEL LOW" - On affected tank fuel
contents below 92kg

- Check fuel contents and
XFEED if required
- Land as soon as practicable
(within 20 minutes)

When cross feeding, the tank with pump off, NOT supplying the
engines, will have a level of unusable fuel of 228kg. This unusable
fuel level value will change to grey to indicate the tank can
no longer supply fuel.

UNUSABLE FUEL
In coordinated (ball centered) flight ............................... 0kg indicated/
............................................................ ...(8 kg/10 litres per tank actual)

I have no idea how accurate this is, but it gives a rough idea about the flight...
 

Helimer 207 flight following 1800 - 2030 local:

YouTube - Helimer 207



Helimer 207 last signal showing a heading of 081 with around 100KIAS:
http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/9...stposition.jpg

Location of the Wreckage in relation to LEAM and ILS approach 26:
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/3...itionils26.jpg