AW139 mishap in Italian Alps
 

Yesterday March 16, 2024 a AW139 helicopter, tail number I-COLK, operated by Avincis about to be on Hems duty at Borgosesia Hems base (Piemonte Region, up north Italy) did a hard landing when performing a Hems rescue at 4500 metre altitude in the Italian Alps just short of Regina Margherita hight alpine refuge (the highest mountain refuge in Europe) built on top of mount Rosa at 4634 metre, one of the highest mount in Europe and second only to Mount Bianco.
There where four POB on board: the pilot, hoist operator, mountain rescue man and mountain operator with avalanche search dog; all four on board escaped the wreck uninjured.

It is unknown what exactly had happened, investigation in due course.

link:
https://www.lastampa.it/verbano-cusi...rita-14151268/

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....db43a5c9e.jpeg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....37308184a.jpeg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....d9c157d48.jpeg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....02bf227ea.jpeg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....435563667.jpeg
Regina margherita refuge in the background.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....83bd59b4e.jpeg

The escaped that, uninjured????!!!!

Now, what happened to the dog?!

Hard landing?

Looks like it went in face first, that's gotta hurt

More likely it rolled over and the blades cut the front off.
Front seaters very lucky.

I guess that would account for the upper fuselage damage too

How will they deal with the wreckage?

IAF Chinook....

Looks like one rotor blade is laying perpendicular to the airframe and way back behind the airframe is a mess of stuff with some bright yellow showing......and looking at the photo there does not seem to be any indication of the blades gouging into the snow.

That gouging might be hidden from view by the main wreckage.


Does what can be seen indicate there was some distance between the first impact and where the main body wound up?

That was my 1st thought!!! Looks a little more than hard!!

Indeed, undercarriage still looks ok (I know it can take some G's), and not a big impact area which would support a hard landing on the nose. Tailrotor looks like it hit the snow with very low velocity.

whiteout landing gone wrong...? or
right landing gear sank in the snow during engine Idle, not enough lift to correct but still enough inertia to ruin a day....

IIRC Babcock (as it was then) crashed 2 AW139 in the Italian Alps in the space of 2 weeks back in 2016/2017 ish....

That's the same operator, crashing the same type, in the same area.... three times. Is this a local issue, or a cultural issue?

Is it a coincidence that Babcock offloaded that HEMS operation and the one in Spain recently but interestingly kept the one in France?

Also, that's pretty high for twin engine HEMS. It's way more efficient (disposable load at altitude) to use a single for that kind of work. I wonder if the recent change in HEMS rules in Europe played a part here?

One AW139 from the same operator crashed in Abruzzo which is in the Apennine's mountain range in central Italy in Jan 2017, approx 500 miles south of the Monte Rosa range.

I’m not sure which one was the other accident you are referring too.

In pretty much the same spot on Monte Rosa an AS350 from Air Zermatt crashed last summer.

https://www.heli-archive.ch/en/helic...tti-monte-rosa

It seems that the previous two consecutive mountain crashes were not enough to get them to fly HEMS with two pilots in the 139, you can take a horse to the water....

While carrying out such mountain rescue in a AW-139 what performance graphs are normally used ?
HIGE or HOGE at MCP / TOP or intrapolate in between ?
Also any way to figure out the wind direction and speed ?
It’ll be interesting to know from HFDM whether the pilots ran out of power and / or (as I suspect )ran out of left rudder towards the end of the approach trying to get into whatever ground cushion they could find !!
A mild tail wind from 4-5 O clock I think would mess the end of approach proceedings ??

The dog escaped unscratched as well as his operator and the mountain rescue man.
After dusting off the snow from their equipment they all three went on with the rescue they're intended to perform since the beginning, which was some hundred meters short the wreckage, pulling out from a crevasse the guy that has fallen in.
These two boys deserve the medal of honour, and the dog too.

The Rotorcraft certified under Part 29 and certificated in Category B must have, in the Limitations Section of the RFM, a chart showing the " WEIGHT-ALTITUDE-TEMPERATURE
for TAKE-OFF, LANDING and IGE MANOEUVRES". The pilot must obtain the weight derived from this chart and based on Altitude, OAT and wind condition expected in the area of operations.

If the data is not depicted on the graph.....you cannot "interpolate".

Use the appropriate graph and see what it provides for the conditions extant and that is your "limit".

Looking into the blank area and guessing what might be is a sure way of getting into trouble.

I would have looked at HIGE, HOGE, and OEI charts and determined each weight for the conditions at the landing site.

Plainly OEI would result in a serious negative vector at that elevation but it would be nice to know how far down the mountain you would have to get to fly away (or not).

Then upon arrival at the scene I would have done a proper Recon.....confirming the wind direction and best approach path....and do a power check in calm air to confirm what power was actually available.....then carry out the landing or reject the effort if there was insufficient power.

Interpolate is not the word I would use....but considering the HOGE and HIGE weights would allow you to see the difference in performance between the two and let that be a factor in your evaluation of the conditions of the landing area re blowing snow, depth of snow, risk of falling through the snow pack, and that kind of thing.

Keeping some reserve power for unknown contingencies during Scene Landings never hurts.

RFM supplement 51, HOVER CEILING HIGE & HOGE AEO TOP.

Briefly, figures are around 6400 kg for HIGE and 5600 kg for HOGE MTOW @ 15000 ft and -10°C.
Normally AW139 hems mission MTOW over 3500 meters is 5700 kg for short nose versions.
4 POB + 450 kg fuel.