Taiwan Coast Guard Dauphin Crash
 

A Dauphin of Taiwan CG crashed today while winching engineers on board a stranded vessel. One fatality, pilot seriously injured and in critical condition...

1 dead, 1 critically injured in helicopter crash in northern Taiwan | Society | FOCUS TAIWAN - CNA ENGLISH NEWS

skadi

RiP
:(

my heart goes out to everyone on board

It seems that there are two fatalities and three persons injured... Unfortunately!

Rest in Peace

truly awful... RIP

Cause looks pretty clear. Poor guys couldn't do much to save it from a hover.

It appears to have been hovering tail into wind?

In that case could fenestron stall be an issue?

Blimin' tv editing.

:O

Sid,
That's not the one that crashed.You are looking at the rescue helicopter that was rescuing the Dauphin. Look at this...

http://www.thevideostreams.com/news/loss-of-tail-rotor/

As you can see, it was hovering with a tail wind...

Yep, just noticed that we are seeing two different snippets of video in one there.

A still pic doesn't give the full story, we can see a bit more of what was going on just before, in this one;

40 secs in;

:( RIP

True, first frame is Sea-Hawk in hover...

But the accident aircraft is a Dauphine...? Not the first one involved in an accident in Taiwan...

Fenestron Stall
 

Fenestron stall does not exist - they tell us - but there is an interesting Aerospatiale Service Letter that explains a particular issue if you are operating a 365 with winds from the starboard quarter (4 'o'clock) as this can induce LTE. The advice if this occurs during take off is to apply full right yaw pedal, reduce collective and land immediately. The letter goes on to say that trying to solve the LTE problem by taking to the skies has never worked.

I'm not saying that this is the cause for we don't have any facts upon which to make a judgement but we do have the video and this suggests a possible LTE situation.

I found this SL after an incident in Cameroon back in 2000 and it was one that had been around for quite a while. Old it may be but relevant it remains.

G.

Fenestron stall or LTE would not keep the aircraft spinning like that - as soon as the relative wind changed, the rotation would stop, or at least slow down - ask any Gazelle pilot who has experienced the aircraft swapping ends in the hover over Belfast.

That was a TR drive failure.

CRAB

Maybe a 365 is different, certainly the Service Letter implied that the situation was divergent.

You fly a 365 now so ask the maintenance organisation to look it up for you. My guess is that was issued in the early '90s.

G.

Geoffers,

You're quite correct, it is indeed a divergent condition, with increasing acceleration to the left. Updated versions of the ASL are published on the Helicopter Safety website:

Eurocopter Service Letter 1673-67-04

Thanks Bob, looks like he came in downwind - classic!

G

Would he have had someone already lowered or lowering on the cable before being 'on station'?