Flying Bull Cobra landing went wrong
 

The Bell Cobra of the austrian Flying Bull team was destroyed when the main rotor struck a roof after landing for refuelling on a small airfield in Austria. The well known pilot was lucky, he had already left the helicopter.

http://www.tt.com/home/13023887-91/h...unverletzt.csp

skadi

The report linked above said the accident happened after the pilot left the cockpit - not the case according to the emerging video footage...
Tyrol seems to see a spike in helicopter accidents this month - at least nobody got hurt in this one.

Mmh, it was obviously flown into the building

https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3f1_...5sqB5AO3pwO.03

skadi

Maybe its the angle of the video....or the quality..but that looks like a beginner trying to land and hover it....of course difficult to say......

Sigfried "Blacky" Schwarz flew the aircraft (chief pilot of the helicopter division of the flying bulls) who's highly experienced. I can't imagine him just flying it into the building trying to park next to the fuel pump. Maybe part of the roof or some sort of canopy over the pumps was dislogded by the downwash and touched the blades. Or maybe he just made a mistake....

A truly embarrassing moment for Austrias' top dog. Red Bull is trying its best to put a good spin on the story and distance Mr. Blacky from the mishap. First they claim the pilot was already outside the cockpit when the blades struck the building, once the video surfaced the narrative was changed to "the skids were already on the ground when a gust of wind pushed the helicopter towards the building"!

Would it be so unimaginable that a pilot of this excellence and skill could simply have misjudge the distance to the building?

No gust of wind, no extraneous influence - that is just a f*ckup.

Why? if he is flying from RHS then cross-cockpit judgement of distance would be tricky. If from LHS then no excuse.

Don't they have ground marshallers?

Tricky to do either in a Cobra!

Watching the video it sounds like the blades initially just clip the building before part of it comes loose and it all goes south quickly.

Looks as though contact was made as the Cobra was descending with its blades above the building.

Crab. Not sure a Cobra has left or right seats, is it not a more warry type with front and back!

This video is from the first post link.
Lucky cameraman.

http://www.tt.com/home/13023887-91/h....csp?tab=video

He was flying from the aft of the two seats of the Cobras tandem cockpit...

skadi

Just watched the video, pausing and playing. Looks like he landed a couple of feet clear, light on the skids and slid slowly left towards to building until contact was made.

Pilot mishap IMHO

Sad loss of a rare machine, must be pretty expensive to replace? (if they can get one)

Should have gone to spec-savers.

Was there a press conference,and were the floats armed...?

Pretty basic stuff ,rotor effects near buildings....
Good job he wasn`t flying the Sycamore....

Doh! should have gone to Specsavers! me for missing the aircraft type and the pilot for not missing the building:)

Crab you are partially right:
Cobra was flown sideways,
Pilot looks therefore to be in the left hand seat.
No excuses!
I think the rotorblades were just above the roof. When pitch was reduced the whole thing exploded.

SLB

Never conflate experience with judgement. Some pilots get there by sheer luck alone.

There is NO left hand seat in a Cobra, unless you're standing on the skid and reaching into the cockpit...

The article linked in the first post has been updated with some quotes from the pilot himself directly after the incident. He said "I flew there pretty close, had the heli already on the ground and got out. The blades were spinning down. Then the machine must have been moved a little and the blades touched the roof."
That the Bell is now just a pile of junk is "annoying, but she wasn't worth much. She is really old."

Now he admits "I took back power which causes the rotor to be pushed down. During that it touched a wall. It was really windy, that certainly played some role. Yes, I unfortunately misjudged the situation. It was like a parking accident."
He also said that the Cobra will be repaired and should be serviceable again.

So I guess the first statement was some kind of shock-induced reaction...