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-   -   Firefighting Helicopter Down west of Edmonton (https://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/641323-firefighting-helicopter-down-west-edmonton.html)

Bksmithca 29th Jun 2021 04:42

Firefighting Helicopter Down west of Edmonton
 
Several new sources are report the crash of a helicopter fighting the wildfires west of Edmonton near Evansburg. No reports on the crew at this time.
Forestry helicopter fighting wildfire crashes near Evansburg | Edmonton Journal

Bksmithca 29th Jun 2021 17:54

Global News is now reporting that the lone pilot was killed in the crash. TSB on it's way to conduct an investigation.
Pilot killed in helicopter crash while fighting wildfire near Evansburg, Alta.: RCMP | Globalnews.ca

lelebebbel 29th Jun 2021 18:49

Yellowhead 212 apparently, pilot only on board

albatross 30th Jun 2021 14:25

Sad News. Fair Skies and following winds. RIP

lelebebbel 3rd Jul 2021 22:45

Rumor: blade or blade section departed on final and was found several hundred feet away

LTP90 5th Jul 2021 04:33

The US Forest Service grounded all of their Bell 205/212 fleet this evening. Supposedly because of something related to information from this crash.

Bksmithca 5th Jul 2021 13:42

Fallen Pilot is Heath Coleman age 49. Details available here https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/heavy-bu...ilot-1.5496351

Gordy 5th Jul 2021 14:51


Originally Posted by LTP90 (Post 11073331)
The US Forest Service grounded all of their Bell 205/212 fleet this evening. Supposedly because of something related to information from this crash.

Here is what USFS sent out:


From FS Airworthiness: Bell Helicopters has discovered a serious issue with the B212 and B205 TT strap pins, inboard. Four to five days ago, a B212 operating in Canada, had a TT strap pin catastrophic failure that resulted in the blade separating in flight. That pin had only 27hrs on it. Another vendor inspected their pins because of the incident and found them deformed after only 29hrs time in service. Apparently, the part number of these pins have either FWFS or FNFS incorporated. A representative from Bell Helicopters was contacted and said that there should be a message coming out from the FAA and/or Bell very soon regarding the pin failure. According to Bell it is very likely that we will see an Emergency AD issued by the FAA tomorrow. Because of this, it is my opinion that we should stand down our Bell medium fleet until we hear from the manufacture or the FAA regarding the failure of these pins. This is emerging information and new info will be shared as it becomes available.

SASless 5th Jul 2021 17:11

If I were either a Pilot or Operator of those types of Aircraft....I would not turn a rotor blade except by hand until I knew for sure whether my aircraft had one of the affected parts or not with absolute certainty.

Never mind waiting for the Emergency AD for even a minute.

Slinging a Blade is almost invariably a once in a lifetime event for the occupants.

ShyTorque 5th Jul 2021 20:32

Terrible.
As they say, "There ain't no cure for that".

Gordy 5th Jul 2021 23:05

4 Attachment(s)
Here are the actual bulletins hot off the press in brief---see the full attachments for the full ASB:

Bell has determined that some main rotor hub strap pins P/N 204-012-104-005 may have not been manufactured in accordance with the engineering design requirements and may shear as a result of the non-conformance.
Although the investigation remains in progress, this ASB mandates that the suspected strap pins with serial number prefix “FNFS” be immediately removed from service. Applicability of this bulletin to any spare part shall be determined prior to its installation on an affected helicopter.
APPROVAL:
The engineering design aspects of this bulletin are FAA approved for FAA certified helicopters as listed in the applicable Type Certificate Data Sheet. For non FAA certified helicopters, the engineering design aspects of this bulletin are Bell Engineering approved.

rotormatic 6th Jul 2021 02:18


Originally Posted by SASless (Post 11073717)
If I were either a Pilot or Operator of those types of Aircraft....I would not turn a rotor blade except by hand until I knew for sure whether my aircraft had one of the affected parts or not with absolute certainty.

Never mind waiting for the Emergency AD for even a minute.

Slinging a Blade is almost invariably a once in a lifetime event for the occupants.


https://wwwapps.tc.gc.ca/Saf-Sec-Sur...wimn/AD_r.aspx

Flapwing 6th Jul 2021 18:07

TC Emergency AD
 
1 Attachment(s)
Issues today...

roscoe1 6th Jul 2021 19:03

A sad, most unfortunate accident. We like to think that vendors follow specs. meticulously and that QA catches errors but we know this is not always true. Without jumping to more conclusions it is worth noting that Bell put out their ASBs, Transport Canada got an emergency AD published and the USFS did what it could but nothing from the FAA to alert operators and ground the machines until inventories are checked and records searched to see if more of this batch of pins are in service. Well, with the 4th of July and all, I guess we shouldn't expect anyone at the desk until this morning.

Bksmithca 7th Jul 2021 02:18

Quick question from a fixed wing type. Looking at Vertical Magazine it had a picture of what I'm guessing was one of the rotors of this aircraft. Is the pin that they are reference in the AD the large 2in pin in the middle of the blue section?

https://verticalmag.com/news/defecti...icopter-crash/


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....6952ad9616.jpg

Jimmy. 7th Jul 2021 04:49


Originally Posted by Bksmithca (Post 11074495)
Quick question from a fixed wing type. Looking at Vertical Magazine it had a picture of what I'm guessing was one of the rotors of this aircraft. Is the pin that they are reference in the AD the large 2in pin in the middle of the blue section?

https://verticalmag.com/news/defecti...icopter-crash/


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....6952ad9616.jpg

As I remember, yes, it is.

gulliBell 7th Jul 2021 07:37


Originally Posted by Bksmithca (Post 11074495)
..Is the pin that they are reference in the AD the large 2in pin in the middle of the blue section?

I'm not an aircraft maintenance engineer, just a simple B212 pilot. What you see there is the outboard end of the tension-torsion strap. There is is one TT strap per blade, and each strap has 2 retaining pins (one inboard and one outboard). The retaining pin you see there appears to have sheared and it's no longer retaining anything. As far as I know there is nothing a pilot would detect on a pre-flight inspection that would warn him of any anomaly with the strap or the pin (these are concealed within the blade grip).

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....71e4ec4fcd.png

albatross 7th Jul 2021 17:31

This Utube animation may be of interest to some animated assembly of head.


Bksmithca 7th Jul 2021 23:45

Thank you to those who provided an explanation. The explanations cleared up everything and I have no desire to fly in a helicopter I'll stick to my fixed wings

Gordy 8th Jul 2021 01:15

A Bell 212 just went down this afternoon in a lake in California fighting the Lava fire, pilot got out ok,


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