Helitak 404 Crash, Qld
 

We just lost a B214B on the fires at Toowoomba, pilot is OK but chopper lying on its side, having a nap.

Is that the only 214? It will take some repairing!

1 of 13 I believe.

Balus bugarrup big time

Think McDermotts own almost all the 214B's in the world via them or their subsidiaries

"....The experienced pilot, who is in his 70s..."

Not very often the pilot is older than a 214....dig a hole and push the wreck into it....pilot in his 70's has earned his retirement I think.

Anyone know who it was? Glad to hear he is ok. I am also in my 70s and used to fly around that area.

The pilot is 67 and a top bloke. He’s doing fine.

Simon McDermott was on the ABC radio this morning assuring us the machine would be fixed in “no time”.

Clearly just needs buffing up.... :rolleyes:

Reports on the ABC claim the incident was caused by a “power failure”.

All assets were grounded for a short time.
Maybe they were eliminating the fuel supply as a cause?

Good call - when operating in Spain many moons ago one of our 205's stopped in the hover just after liftoff from hot re-fueling.

Apparently the guy in the tanker was dipping the tanks a few days before and it started to rain. Rather than get wet he jumped off the top of the tank and left the top of the tank open!!

We drained about 200 litres of water out of the 205 and it was hard to get all the water out.

Extremely hot weather and erratic wind conditions in steep terrain claims Bell 214B.

On 13 Nov 2019, adverse weather conditions proved too much for the powerful Bell 214B during low level waterbombing, which was forced to crash land into a tight clearing. The helicopter then rolled onto its side; however, the pilot walked away with only minor injuries!

Paul Sadler, Communications Manager, Australian Transport Safety Bureau, told us they often release Occurrence Briefs to expedite and share safety messages in the absence of an investigation. On 23 Dec 2019, they published a report into the Bell 214B helicopter water bombing accident near Pechey, Qld.

In brief (edited), the update states, at 1344 AEST, the helicopter approached the bushfire downwind and downhill from the north-west at about 60 knots and made a descending right-hand turn back into wind over the fire source. The descent was continued towards the drop zone. The airspeed was further slowed, and the height was reduced to about 50 feet above treetop level. After the water was dropped onto the fire, the helicopter climbed away towards rising terrain. The pilot heard the low rotor RPM warning and but had insufficient height to recover the rotor RPM by lowering the collective. Despite his best attempts to climb above the obstacles and fire, the rotor RPM appeared to decay further. As a result, the Bell 214B collided with the ground and rolled onto its left side. The pilot was able to turn off the fuel to stop the engine and exited the helicopter via the overhead window with only minor injuries. Neither the g-force activated ELT beacon or flight tracking alarm were triggered.Based on the pilot’s account and assessment of the recovered aircraft, mechanical malfunctions were ruled out.

The operator later stated the accident was most likely the result of a loss of rotor RPM from which the pilot was unable to recover, due to a downwind descending turn, a low altitude water release and a departure into rising terrain. The pilot had to decide between putting the helicopter into tall trees and the active bushfire or climbing over the trees to clear ground. In choosing the latter, the rotor RPM decayed further, and the helicopter contacted the ground.

robsrich: a good luck story. Fire fighting is a high risk operation, especially when hot gusty winds are hindering low level operations.