Bell 525 fatal accident July 2016
 

Sounds like there was an incident today with a helicopter crash in the area where Bell performs 525 flight testing

Went down
 

Fatalities. There is live stream on wfaa

Bell 525 Accident
 

Fatalities have been confirmed in a helicopter crash in Ellis County.

DPS and the Ellis County Sheriff's Office are on the scene of the crash near FM 876 and Bell Branch Road.

Bell Helicopter confirmed fatalities after its aircraft crashed. A source tells News 8 three helicopters were flying in formation when the incident happened.

Bell said in a statement the helicopter was "conducting developmental flight test operations on the Bell 525 at our Xworx facility in Arlington, Texas, that resulted in a helicopter accident."

Two farmers who witnessed the crash told News 8 they saw the helicopter flying from the northeast when it hit a power line and exploded.

One person was taken to a local hospital via EMS.

Stephanie Parker with the Ellis County Office of Emergency Management said on Twitter the FAA is closing the airspace above the crash location.

Check back for more on this developing story.

Copyright 2016 WFAA

damn.... RIP, brothers.... :(

TV report
 

Bell Helicopter aircraft on test flight crashes in Ellis County | KXAN.com

Has fairly clear video of the crash site and the tail section that appears to be separate from the rest of the crash site. My condolences to everyone involved.

Rest in Peace Brothers (another sad, sad loss for our industry)

Not sure if this figured into it, but a friend at work has a son living up in Denton area. Says that today therewas, due to a thermal inversion, a weather alert for "non-thunderstorm related wind shear." Unable at the moment to figure out how wide an area around Dallas/Fort Worth that weather pattern spread.

Crash of a 525
 

Vertical Mag is reporting the crash of a 525 during flight testing.

Condolences to the families of the 2 crew.

Very sad news.

Sad news here: https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...g-crew-427063/.

very sad indeed

Two killed as Bell 525 crashes during flight tests - Vertical

Horrible, RIP to those who test fly to bring us new technology aircraft.

Sounds insensitive, but I hope its not an aircraft problem. Our beleaguered industry does not need another airworthiness accident, especially with a new type which promises so much and will be a real jump in technology.

Very sad. Perhaps interesting in links above that local farmers reported a power line strike, but local law enforcement countered that.

The final flight. Ship was out at 190+ Knots.

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/a...n525ta#a406614

The Sultan

My condolences to friends and family of the lost crew members. :{

525 Relentless Prototype Crashes in Texas

According to this, the tail boom was found 457.2 meters southeast of the main wreckage. Certainly don't wanna jump to conclusions, but mid-flight separation anyone?

How accurate is that speed info of flightradar24 ?

Is that some calculated "post processed" mess by flightradar24 or is it the actual a/c speed at a historic point in time verbatim as transmitted by ADSB-out?

Perhaps we should mourn the loss of the crew and refrain from speculation as to cause for the moment.
To all my friends at Bell.Sorry for your loss. Thoughts and prayers for the crew, their families and co-workers.

Sad loss
 

RIP to our brothers. My thoughts goes to their families.

I would guess there was enough data transfer , black boxes and cvr as well as dash cam that it will be a big help on the investigation .
sad day though.