Broward County accident...
 

https://wsvn.com/news/local/broward/2-hospitalized-after-bso-fire-rescue-helicopter-crashes-in-pompano-beach/
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Video of crash. 3 POB.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...sing-tail.html

That looks like a fire causing structural failure. Horrendous. It’s a miracle that anyone involved survived.

2 pax, not seriously injured.Unbelievably lucky, imagine if they were in a robbi!

Unbelievable lucky. Surviving structural failure in a heli does not happen often.

Update: 2 dead, 6 injured. Was about a mile out of airport when turned back.
https://wsvn.com/news/local/broward/...beach-triplex/

Wonder if they knew the severity of the problem? Dropping it into the first safe space (if there was one) would have been worth the paperwork vs trying to return to base and not making it.
Miracle anyone survived, feel for the unsuspecting folks who had it drop into their home.
All things considered, very lucky all round.

There is an ATC recording where they tell Pompano TWR they had an engine failure and request priority runway landing. I don’t know why they didn’t have a fire warning?

Found the guy with zero multi-time.

Sky news. Different camera footage.

https://news.sky.com/story/two-kille...orida-12949832

Did you try apply your mind or did you just leap into sarcasm?
In this case, that second engine really paid for itself when the tailboom failed.
One size thinking doesn't fit all.

There's a lot of difference between an engine failure and an uncontained failure with a large fire, which is what it looks like here. The only question I have is whether the pilot could see or otherwise knew the severity of the situation. There's an extended video of this where you can see the chopper flying for well over a minute with an obviously serious fire. Apparently the pilot has survived so he'll be able to answer all those questions.

The fire detectors are mounted in front under the ST/GEN and under the combustion can. If the fire was aft and on the deck quite possible never hit the trigger temps for the detectors. Seems if he had a warning he would have blown the fire bottle or at least commented to ATC is was on fire?

Ouch, can you imagine sitting in your home and having a helicopter fall through the roof?
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....51043d7047.jpg
That's just not something you expect on a given day.
Very sorry to learn of the two fatalities. :suspect:

You don't need to be a heli pilot or indeed a pilot to know it's probably better to land asap when on fire.

But you have to know that you are on fire.

skadi

We get myopic from the systems installed and our subsequent training. Fire is only ever engine, occasionally electrical. We think we have lots of time to sort it out.

Was this a 135, does it have a baggage fire warning? Fire location doesn't seem related to engines, though on ATC they say one quit. They got out a mile and turned around, tower didn't see them trailing smoke when they left, so the tail boom fell off within what, 60 seconds of the fire starting?

Food for thought when you're flying those IA crews around with the 212/412 tail boom full of propane and jugs of gas.

This was a HEMS machine so no baggage compartment. No problem, especially for the CabinCrew, to look aft through the whole cabin. As seen on the videos the fire took place in the aft section of engine bay or even battery/Aircondition compartement. Fire is seen on both sides of the fuselage on different videos.

skadi

EC-135 Crash Worthy Design
 

The EC-135 a Very Robust Aircraft built to the latest crash worthiness criteria. Those that survived this incident are living proof of this.

Could it be due to a medical oxygen cylinder explosion?

This appears to be the aircraft. It also had a littler kit so no baggage compartment to deal with. Fire/smoke seem to be coming from the bottom aft corner of the engine deck. And given the angle of deck this is where any fluids would be gathering at. It also looks like the tailboom failed aft of the mount flange where the structure is mainly carbon layers and nomex core. Something not very fire proof or excessive heat resistant. Hopefully all the data modules survived the post fire and will give a picture of what transpired so quickly.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...fb468a85_b.jpg

There is another video which shows the starboard side and there is also visible fire at or behind the engine bay. There is a titanium firewall between and aft of both engines. I don't think that <2min of flighttime is enough to break these walls with fire.

skadi

Here's a different video which the #1 side much more involved. And if fuel/oil is leaking past the firewalls or worse out the exhaust then not much to stop it. Here is also a recent press conference. They knew they had fire and I believe blew the bottle. Unfortunately a paramedic died.

According to the sheriffs press conference it was one of the flight nurses.

skadi

You're right. My bad. Corrected.

Could it be a rotor-brake fire..?

The Arrius engine had a service bulletin a while back for missing dampers on the power turbine. The dampers stop vibration of the blades in the turbine wheel. In the incident that precipitated the service bulletin, there was an uncontained release of turbine blades (on the ground in that case). That type of engine failure could lead to a fire.

There have also been 2 previous in flight uncontained engine failures on EC135 but both were on P1 variants due to inadvertant entry into manual mode and subsequent overspeeds. That particular failure mode is not possible on the T1.

The rotorbrake is mounted on the xsmn and in front of the engines and its no more powerful than a BO105 brake.

Oil fires are a different thing. Fuel you can shut off and stop, oil not so much and it moves slowly and sticks to surfaces.

If you look at the flight track they got it turned around and heading back and the whole flight time was about 3 minutes.

Are you serious? What an aggressive comment, further more you seem to have opened you mouth and removed all doubt.

I agree with Bellringers comment, Uncontained fire is land immediately. Assuming he fired his suppression bottles. It’s possible the airport was the only option without endangering 3rd parties but I agree if there’s a place to set it down to do so.

Proximity to the airport can be a killer for any serious emergency. If on fire OEI and close to an airport, landing in a sports field vs a short flight to a runway is going to be very tempting.

Surely it’s a miracle anyone survived not only inflight break up but also on fire with post crash fire. I hope the ones that didn’t were unconscious.

thats one of several reasons my crew(along with many around us at the time) never used the tailboom baggage compartment.

Will be interesting to see how much intrusion into the structure the initial impact made, for 2 injured and disoriented parties to exit the aircraft. Landing on the apartments might have absorbed some of the downward energy in a better manner than pancaking Into the concrete.

Can’t post a picture showing the overhead map of where they crashed. There wasn’t an option of performing an emergency landing without putting life/property at risk. I suspect he knew exactly how bad the fire was and was praying that it would hold up a couple more blocks to the airport. I’m guessing he was 2 miles away at most.

Proximity to the airport can be a killer for any serious emergency. If on fire OEI and close the an airport landing in a sports field vs a short flight to a runway is going to be very tempting.
Amen. It's really hard to take the decision to land short, damage the aircraft but survive. Sometimes survival is as much as you can hope for, sacrificing the airframe.

It will be interesting to read the Pilot transcript. Watching the video after the tail boom failed the initial descent seems fairly low and appears he’s keeping the power on.
Once spinning you normally see guys dump the collective.
I think that potentially saved their lives and kept ROD to a survivable amount.

Pic from Sky News site look as if fire is from ‘a particular panel’s’ location on the starboard side, close and accessible to tail boom connection point.
https://news.sky.com/story/two-kille...orida-12949832
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....cac5b0883.jpeg


Video from ABC News site shows fire to be from that specific area only; the flames also don’t look like fuel to me. https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/fire-rescue-helicopter-crashes-florida-2-hospitalized/story?id=102617239

(Just saying what I see without assumption, despite many hours on type)

Looks like the fire is below the engine exhausts and below the engines.

[QUOTE=SilsoeSid;11493222]Pic from Sky News site look as if fire is from a particular panelled location on the starboard side, close to tail boom connection point. (Drivers will know where I mean)
https://news.sky.com/story/two-kille...orida-12949832

Video from ABC News site shows fire to be from that specific area only; the flames don’t look like fuel to me.

It looks to be from the battery compartment or near. aft of the engine compartment...

Tank exploding would cause serious harm to the individuals on boards.

Pretty sure that 135 had no fire bottles installed. I've flown 4 or 5 airframes and all of them had no bottles. Never liked the 135 because of this. They all had the fire PB's but alert/shutoff only. That aircraft spent most of its time out on the swamp looking for drunken sailors. Would have been hard to look back and see that fire glowing in the daytime.

The 135 has a Fire Extinguisher system available as a supplemental kit option (FMS 9.2-9) ... the basic configuration has a Fire Warning system only. It will be interesting to see how this aircraft was configured. Anyone in the know?