Twisting By The Pool - Fiji Style
 

Seven people survived a helicopter crash on Fiji's Treasure Island last night.
The Eurocopter they were in was trying to land when it crashed, the Fiji Broadcasting Commission reported.
It is believed the aircraft may have been caught by a strong gust of wind.
A witness, Bob Carroll, wrote on Facebook: "A beautiful day trip to Treasure Island changed dramatically as an inbound helicopter attempting to land on the Treasure Island helipad only 50m from where we were dining caught a wind gust that sent it into a tree and then crashing into another tree right next to the pool ... scary but thank God all got out of the chopper and we are all OK."
- NZ Herald


Seven people survive chopper crash in Fiji - World - NZ Herald News

Mmmmm ...

Helipad not particularly over size is it ... :eek:

Video.

Watch: Helicopter crashes at Fiji resort, seven on board escape | Stuff.co.nz

Would be one hell of a gust ...

Has that "camera strap around the collective" look?

"Hey Hank, get a photo of that nice beach". "OK Honey" .... :yuk:

Looks suspiciously like a strong onshore breeze from the approach and the nose low (initial) touchdown; if so then I'd have opted for a crosswind rather than downwind landing. Speculation only at this stage, of course.

I suspect the person taking the video may have thought themselves a bit lucky, though. That's as close as I'd ever want to get to a turning and burning rotor :oh:

Talk about brown trouser moment.....

If we are speculating I'd say landed collective not fully down, moved the cyclic and it started to rock on the toes due to a forward C of G issue (overloaded). Bit of panic, snatched the collective and binned it.

Didn't really notice too many white caps or spray from the water so not that windy or at least nothing the AS350 couldn't handle.
New to type or just a low timer?

Glad everyone walked away.

Heliringer

Agreed 100%

The first 20-30 seconds show an approach from camera left, crabbing in as if in a crosswind, then very twitchy turn to his right and touch down on the toes of the skids.

Maybe a bit of both downwind plus collective not fully down?

Had someone demonstrate to me in my 120 the danger of getting a strong gust under the tail by flying backwards at no more than 15 knt. No warning, but wind got under the tail and pitched us nose down just like that. Can't apply rear cyclic - risk = chop the tail - so "wait it out".


Demo over an airfield with adequate height to demonstrate safely so nothing more than a twitching sphincter. It put me off setting down downwind as I reasoned that the same could happen from a tail-wind, and close to ground / buildings I would have no time to recover.


The speed of attitude change looked just like that to me; and he had no room to recover.




Not saying there was not some other cause, just that an on-shore breeze of "less than you might think" might do exactly that.

Well, I assume something or someone bumped the cyclic, possibly the front sear pax while getting out. Take a look at that freeze frame just before the heli pitches forward. That's a lot of disk tilt for a gust, don't you think?

http://i.imgur.com/k1dyGZc.jpg

Hi, new here so please be gentle :)

Just an observation, but on this crash and a couple of others, (the shaking to pieces in Brazil etc,) when things go wrong in the AS350, the front windscreen/ Cabin, seems to detach from the roof just infront of the main rotor very quickly. In the event of an accident, the pilot become exposed very quickly. Is this a weakness in the 350/355 model ?

@Nescafe:

I like your story....so what did you do other than telling this story here?

Did you actually file a report with the FAA/CAA?
Did you talk to the Director of Operations of this company?

I totally agree you did the right thing by saying something to the pilot-but it does not stop there..

If one of my pilots would do such things, i would appreciate a feedback from the passengers (which is why we hand out cards).

Please don't take offence Nescafe but perhaps going back to the hotel, looking in the phone book and calling the Fiji CAA might have been more appropriate.

CAAF
 

Has anyone here had any experience with the Civil Aviation Authority of Fiji (CAAF) ??

Just curious.

Bumping the cyclic?
 

Which cyclic to you mean? For sightseeing ops, it is normal practice to remove the secondary controls. In particular, as this was a 1+6 pax configuration, I believe it is almost impossible to have a cyclic on the front pax (i.e., left) side.

I haven't seen the video due slow internet here.
But how about an unfortunately timed hydraulic failure.

R

Thanks H & H.

The reason I asked the question was because of a recommendation by our dispatcher one night on a flight from LAX to SYD.

We had a passenger who was having chest pains and we were formulating a diversion plan in case the situation worsened.

Even though NAN was our closest suitable airfield, our dispatcher recommended that, if at all possible, we use NOU due to "political instability" in Fiji.

As it tuned out, we were able to proceed to SYD.

Rinker:
The accumulators on the Astar will give you about 2-3 full cyclic movements after Hyd failure, so chances are this has nothing to do with Hydraulics.

Went through frame by frame. The first sign of movement in the disk that I see is the rearward blade lifting way above the track of the other 2, which are only slightly below level. Don't see how a cyclic movement would do that. My guess is that this is a downwind settle with onshore gusting wind.

https://www.facebook.com/ruy.flemmin...8233629229257/

another but this was a near miss