Helitrans (Norway) AS-350 missing off coast of Germany
 

A/C dropped off the radar screens at 14:30 local on a flight crossing the ocean from Germany to Halmstad/ESMT in Sweden.

Not looking good. Search suspended for the night.

www.vg.no - Helicopter missing

Wx on departure (Lubeck) was CAVOK, but weather in Copenhagen area was ****e with snow and low VV. However Soenderborg/EKSB north west of the bay was VMC.

Anyone knows which machine it is?

It puzzles what they were doing over the bay of Lübeck on a flight from Lübeck to Halmstad. It doesn't seem to be the most direct route either. Moreover, in a single-engine helicopter in the winter, wouldn't one choose to remain over terra firma up to Fehmarn and then have the shortest possible Baltic crossing over to Rødby in Denmark (with ferries departing every 30 minutes below you)?

According to the latest news, a German Navy Ship has detected an ELT signal east of the island of Fehmarn.

skadi

No results so far. The ELT Signal was obviously false alarm. A backpack with a notebook, possibly from the romanian pax, was found at a beach in the area.
Watertemperature is about 4°C :(

According to AIS-Schiffspositionen/-verkehr in Echtzeit there are still 9 searchvessels on task in the area east of Neustadt in Holstein.

skadi

AS 350 details
 

It is an AS350AB operating survey mission with Lidar.

Any info on the name of the pilot?

Maybe that's what he tried to do but Weather might have been an issue. We had some snow moving in from the west heading eastbound. The last observed heading of the helicopter was a heading of 084 (away from the inbound snow?).

Somebody have some news about this situation?

Assuming that means an AS350BA, Helitrans have two LN-OMY (serial 1017) and LN-ORK (1056) according to official data at 1st November. They also have one B1 and nine B3s.

I find a photo of LN-OMY looking like it may be fitted to take LIDAR stuff - although that does NOT confirm it as the subject helicopter which is being searched for.

http://www.nordicrotors.com/images_2...splay_7003.jpg

Confirm
 

That is right. AS350BA LN-OMY

German media reported yesterday evening that a rucksack had been found on a beach of the island of Fehmarn, containing a laptop computer which could be linked to the passenger.

[edit: sorry, didn't see Skadi's post to the same effect...]

nothing conclusive until now
 

as350 missing
 

To Marius X:

Marius ..are you a Lidar operator too?

Seems as if all search efforts may now have been called off.

It looks like the search continues
 

Officially, the search operations have been called off for the weekend.

But, I am checking from time to time the radar with ships that navigate in that area, and I saw one German military ship circling around, for hours, in the Bay near Scharbeutz. The ship doesn't have a declared destination, which looks like a rearch and rescue operation.
Harta live a navelor - AIS - Trafic maritim si pozitii

Let's hope they will find both of the people from that helicopter.

Des anyone know some online realtime radar which shows the helicopters in flight? I only have a link from a website showing only commercial flights (only planes): Flightradar24.com - Live flight tracker!

It was said above that the sea temperature was about 4°c and which means if they ditched ... well .. not much one can say really.

However, there is always room for hope unless information to the contrary arises.

That flight radar site is interesting but surely there must be more air traffic (airlines) than that which is shown?

Let's keep our fingers crossed for the Helitrans crew.

according to the vessel tracking website, three military ships are currently out there in the suspected area...

Assuming there was no "ducane" kind of pinger on board,
now ships are performing side scan sonar sweep of seabed...

There's a new official press realease from Helitrans
 

They still didn't found them or the helicopter. Now they will search on land, too.
On the sea, the German Navy used hi-tech sonars for the past two days but nothing showed up.

Google Traducere

The search still continues. The minehunter vessel Passau from the German Navy spotted an object on the seafloor, which is now beiing investigated.

Suche nach Helikopter geht weiter - HL-live.de

skadi

No helicopter or parts, just rocks.

skadi

Latest newsreport about half an hour ago:
The helicopter was located by the searchvessel !

Vermisster Hubschrauber gefunden

skadi

Search pattern of the MS "Passau":

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...407/Passau.png

... as found on Marinetraffic.com

It looks like they were taking a short cut over the bay and that it hit them right in the middle of it. :(:(:(

Thats true, draw a direkt course from Lübeck airport to Halmstad airport, that fits almost perfectly to this position.

skadi

helitrans oficial
 

According to the latest news, the wreck should be recovered during this night. Officials did not say anything about the two occupants.

skadi

A very black night, poor visibility, low cloud & snow, SP in an single squirrel out over 4 degree water. What a horrible place to be.

Did the machine have any kind of stabilisation or AFCS?

torquetalk, the accident happened at daylight with pretty VMC around 2:00 pm!

skadi

Thanks Skadi: thought it was at night.

The cause of this accident might never be known...depending on how much is left of the wreckage...

Someone should check the hydraulic actuators very carefully.

.........explain....

Now it's a sad certainty
 

No parts of the helicopter were found since the crash, so my opinion is that they rather made an emergency landing than a crash and the wreck is still complete. I think we will know more in the next days.

skadi

Weather and some technical problems prevented the recovery last night. A news update will be given by the authorities later this day. Both persons on board were not found in the wreck or vicinity.

Wetter und technische Probleme behindern Hubschrauber-Bergung

skadi

Shawn,

Appologies if I sound abit harsh, but what the F...k do you mean with such a statement with the helicopter still in the water??

Or maybe you can be so kind and e-mail those investigators in Germany your conclusion and save them the trouble...:D

This is probably one of the most uninformative bit of information with regards to an accident I have EVER read.

Shawn,

Do you have this problem?

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/i...em3jxeUztGrtPghttps://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/i...tcp5hH35LuzUwV

Surprising statement given that the aircraft is still on the bottom of the sea.

With due respect maybe it should be left to the accident investigators which apparently you are not. :ugh: