HEMS AS350 Christmas Valley OR 19th May 2022
 

Four injured in Airlink helicopter crash at Christmas Valley airport | KATU

by Carmine Gemei

Wednesday, May 18th 2022
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A second view of the wreckage following Wednesday evening's helicopter crash. As of the Lake County Sheriff's Office press release at 8:15 p.m. on Wednesday, all four crew members were still alive. (Courtesy: Chuck Coleman)
https://katu.com/resources/defaults/...l/facebook.svghttps://katu.com/resources/defaults/...al/twitter.svg?subject=Four%20injured%20in%20Airli...egon-ntsb-faa-LAKE COUNTY, Ore. — Four crew members were injured and transported to hospitals following an Airlink helicopter crash at the Christmas Valley Airport in Lake County Wednesday evening.

Lake County Sheriff's Office Deputy Daniel Tague confirmed the crash happened at 5:24 p.m. on Wednesday, and all four crew member were still alive as of Lake County Sheriff's Office press release at 8:15 p.m. Wednesday night.

Tague said the Airlink helicopter was in the process of landing at the Christmas Valley Airport to pick up a patient when it crashed.

He said they did not have any leads on what could have caused the crash.
Tague said the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have started an investigation into the crash and are currently on their way to Christmas Valley.

FAA Accident and Incident Notification(s): Notice(s) Created 19-MAY-22 IDENTIFICATION Date: 19-MAY-22
Time: 00:29:00Z
Regis#: N851AL Aircraft Make: AIRBUS
Aircraft Model: AS350
Event Type: ACCIDENT
Highest Injury: SERIOUS
Aircraft Missing: No
Damage: SUBSTANTIAL
LOCATION City: CHRISTMAS VALLEY
State: OREGON Country: UNITED STATES DESCRIPTION
Description: AIRCRAFT CRASHED UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES ATTEMPTING TO LAND AND BECAME INVERTED, CHRISTMAS VALLEY, OR.
INJURY DATA
Total Fatal: 0
Fatal Serious
Minor None Unknown
Flight Crew 0 1 0 0 0
Cabin Crew 0 3 0 0 0
Passenger 0 0 0 0 0
Ground 0 0 0 0 0
OTHER Activity: AMBULANCE
Flight Phase: LANDING (LDG)
Operation: 135
Aircraft Operator: MED-TRANS Flight Number:
FAA FSDO: PORTLAND FSDO
Entry Date: 19-MAY-22
Updated since entry: No
END NOTICE

There's not much information to go on. It definitely seems rather unusual to crash while landing at an airport in day vmc conditions.

It was pretty windy that day out here.

I just wonder how you seat three (3) "cabin crew" in a 350 in Ambulance configuration?

evil7 1 Pilot, 2 med crew 1 Patient... And still tight.... very very tight.

They were landing to pick up a patient.
3rd crew member could have been in training or needed for the patient. just thinking back on situations I have flown In HAA.

Tight doesn’t justify the condition in a 350 or even a 407 with 3 in the back. Even worse with a ballon pump or NICU isolette

Some operators leave the middle seat in, some don't. Very tight.

@Winnie - it said three cabin „crew“. That would not include a patient. Therefore my comment.
@havoc - even if the third member was a trainee, where would he sit? You think he laid on the stretcher?😉
@ LRP - what middle seat? All „stretcher“ configurations I know have a pilot up front, two seats (one half of the four row bench) behind him and the stretcher beside the pilot from front to back. So in the whole aircraft there only are three seats (incl. pilot) and a stretcher. So to my knowledge no chance of three „cabin crew“.
But you never stop learning, so maybe you can point out another lay-out to me.

FYI: Air Methods has a AS350 EMS interior with the 2 aft seats behind the pilot and a 3rd seat aft of the stretcher. So 3 med crew is possible.

Aircraft Weight and Balance
 

Depending on fuel load, passenger weights and locations in the cabin, the aircraft could have been operating at or in excess weight and Balance limits.

1 seat (actually a half seat) directly behind the litter, and 1 or 2 on the far right. Usually the 3rd seat (numbered right to left) is removed and replaced by a rack or pockets for pumps and med gear. Not unusual to have a third rider for training or a parent for young children.

I assume this flight originated in Bend....and would have been no refuel in Christmas Valley.....so about a 160NM round trip plus daytime Reserve and zero burn fuel?

Four folks plus picking up a Patient....Adult, Child, or Infant?

Certainly not an Isolate flight as there would not have been room for for four Adults....or am I wrong in thinking that?

My experience was a Neo-Nate Flight involving an Isolette involved an extra Med Crew or even two....but my experience was in 412's for that work.

Bend airport to Christmas Valley is only 57NM, and the airport is at 4320 MSL. All well within the performance envelope of a maximum GWT B3. Weather was 6000 SCT to clear, however, high winds in the area gusting to 30 knots. Also, note the RFM HIGE/HOGE performance charts stipulate: NO WIND.
FWIW, the pictures I have seen seem to show the wreckage off aiport near a road.
I have heard 4th crew was in training and if the patient wasn't a child, could have been left at the airport with the ambulance crew (that is not that unusual in the HAA world I came from).

Hallo LRP, would you have a picture or drawing of that "half extra seat" lay-out? All stretcher configs I have seen so far would mean that - if you put in another seat "directly behind the litter" - you would sit on the patients head (see picture)
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....492b41e39a.jpg
A photo of your desciption would be appreciated. I would class such a lay-oüt as "ridicuolus" :eek::}

There are several variations from different vendors. Last pic is of the accident aircraft with 3 seats across the back.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....cda2a729db.png
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....9ba1124252.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f034138be3.jpg

Glad not working in the back of that setup!
On the brighter side, the CRFS seems to be working fine👍🏻

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....7650f9a50f.jpg

Are the three bulkhead (Med Crew) Seats certified as being crashworthy?

If so...does stowing equipment and other items beneath them conform with the requirements for those crashworthy seats?

We once ran into such a problem at my Operator when our designers built in a small compartment under such a certified seat and we had to remove it.

Advanced Care capability requires a lot of gear....and stowage has always been a difficult thing to accommodate without compromising something else.

Access to the patient in small aircraft is one such issue....as in some aircraft there just isn't room to grant enough access should the patient begin to crater enroute.

Air Methods has long had an excellent engineering and design capability.

You maybe thinking of energy-absorbing seats which need to stroke a bit. While my info is dated, none the medical interiors I installed had E-A seats in the back which allowed stuff to be stored under them like the factory bench seat. The newer B3s came with E-A seats upfront which precluded no storage under them. And I believe the EC130s now offer pax E-A seats in the back but havent seen any of their use in EMS as of yet. But that dont mean they're not out there just not in the pics above.

I'm pretty certain there is a placard that reads "do not store anything under all the seats" [sic] in the factory bench seat equipped cabin. At least in the older models that i've flown. We always joked that this placard is actually a bit ambiguous, as it could technically allow us to store something under *some* of the seats.

Anyways, that cabin layout is absolutely ridiculous. But I'd be very surprised if they were running these machines with stuff stored in a non-approved way.

Define older models. The only Airbus models that I've seen with that placard had energy-absorbing seats installed like in the EC130B4. Its required per the Limitations section in the AFM. The AS350 doesn't have that requirement unless it has the pilot/co-pilot E-A seats installed but the only placards I've seen required on that model are on floor loading. Besides the original 350 bucket seats had storage compartments incorporated into those seats as well. So perhaps your placards were for a different reason as the area under the aft factory seat was used for storage on a regular basis in my experience and was perfectly legal. No different than the EMS interiors.
You'll find the majority of AS350 EMS interiors flying around the US are of the same layout. And with the same amount of equipment stored in various locations. I don't know how the EC130 EMS interiors handles storing items under seats but the 350 has zero issue with it from a regulatory side other than they should be restrained in some manner from my experience.

Why did the helicopter crash?

Mechanical failure....pilot error?

Any information out that begins to address the cause of the crash?

Daytime...decent weather....windy....and it crashed during landing.....so what went wrong?

Another ASplat hydraulic problem?

Well, this particular machine had dual-Hyd, so bet something else…

Engine failure? All the parts looked to be right next to the aircraft cabin and fuselage?

Main Rotor blades did not seem to show much rotational damage on the leading edges.

Same for the Tail Rotor Blades from what is visible.

It was windy....but they were landing at the airport....not some confined area.

Christmas Valley is pretty much out in an open Plain....no mountains very close as I recall.

News reports are saying the landed hard then rolled over.

Seems some folks are being pretty tight lipped.....even the pprune Accident Investigation Crowd.

NTSB prelim confirms pprune posted information. And nothing more.

Any logical reason for the NTSB not to travel to the crash scene?

Would not that be a great place to initiate an Accident Investigation....survey the location of all the bits and pieces....photograph everything....identify any witnesses...locate security cameras and that kind of thing?

You'll find in a number of non-fatal accidents the NTSB will not travel and delegate the FAA to perform the investigation. A NTSB IIC is still assigned to oversee the investigation, determine the results, manage the reports, etc. The same investigative steps are still performed and usually by the same people in these types of events. However, there seems to be an increased use of this delegative authority with the backlog from covid.