November 2nd 2022 - BBC report heli down in Wales
 

Crash in woodland, four taken to hospital - Link to BBC story

Looks like G-RAYN - Castle Air A109.

Glad they all made it out OK.

Hope those injured make a swift recovery.

AAIB have sent a team: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/a...-november-2022

Another report which seems to refer to the same incident: https://www.racingpost.com/news/late...ccident/586585

Pure speculation, but either approach to or departure from a poorly lit site maybe?

h14

Another triumph for VIP onshore "two-crew IFR" ops?

Viewing the BBC article that was linked.....gazing past the paddock gate with the helicopter hiding in the wood line to the right.....away in the distance is wha appears to my old eyes to be a rather odd looking tree with what appears to be a lot of bark missing and it leaning on about a 45 degree angle.

Do others see the same thing?

As we have no credible information at this time and we are all working on pure supposition......I would say that looks odd and let it go at that for the time being.

Well, what is the probability of them having invented a new type of accident? Probably slim.
No serious injuries, it will buff out. :E

I think its your old eyes, the only thing I can see that looks 45 degrees is a bit of hedge sticking out from the gate but looks like its in the background, and the 'bark missing' is a leaf. Maybe its my slightly younger eyes...

Looking at the flights made by the aircraft yesterday, I'm speculating that they were departing from a shoot, perhaps Cyffliliog.

Should have gone to Specsavers....:) That is a twig in the foreground above the gate......

Closer image showing the tailboom is in the field to the left of the fuselage.. they appear to have been very lucky, there is what looks like a tree at an odd angle behind the tail skid, but it also looks dead, storm damage?.

https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2022-...in-north-wales


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....011ca02366.png

It's either 2-crew or its not. There is no grey area or 'pretend' 2-crew ops. But isn't it a bit harsh calling it a 'triumph' when people are in hospital???
Obv the weather was pretty poor last night and looking at FR24 it would appear that this was a departure from the site. It would have also been dark. So many variables. AC mechanical issue ? We don't know and can only speculate. Hopefully they all make a recovery but I have heard that the pax were Sam Thomas and Dai Walters. Horse racing trainer and jockey? I'm sure the AAIB report will be published in about 3 years and we'll get to know the full picture then.

>It's either 2-crew or its not. There is no grey area or 'pretend' 2-crew ops

there is plenty of "pretend" 2 crew ops still going on in the onshore world, and plenty of people poling around using unauthorised IFR approaches etc

i'm not saying this is the cause of this incident, but these onshore "mishaps" do seem to be still occurring (Vauxhall A109, "Paul Mcartney" S76 incident, Starspeed S92 incident etc)

You ain’t wrong!

yes they do still go on and I’m totally against them, especially the ‘VFR’ approach system in the 109SP. But, I reckon this was a departure not an arrival, although I’ve been wrong before, and yes, we’ve seen accidents occur on departure.

ps the Vauxhall accident was a single crew accident albeit wx related.

Apparently a mechanical problem just after takeoff from the shoot with the pilot opting to re land

Surprised there has been no statement from the operator yet (unless I have missed it); we used to have a standard statement prepared in case of incidents so that we could get ahead with any known facts ahead of possible negative media etc. Thankfully we never needed to use it during my 14 years in the industry!!!

……not forgetting that accident occurred almost a decade ago and there is no evidence the pilot was attempting a planned IFR approach. It was a case of continuing to fly under VFR into IMC conditions, not the same thing.

Helicrazi.....I think you are right....it does appear to be a limb of that bush to the side of the gate.

I'll tell the wife, she wont believe it :}

no, but it was another onshore accident with an experienced pilot, where weather/decision making as the cause.