B206 accident in Lagos 28/8/2020
 

Some sad news coming from Lagos: https://www.36ng.ng/2020/08/28/break...ding-in-lagos/

Two fatalities (both pilots).

Helicopter crashes into building in Lagos
 

Came down in Ikeja, Lagos, 2 dead, one in ICU. Possible a Bell 206 JetRanger (or derivative).

Source: Nigerian FlightDeck: https://nigerianflightdeck.com/helic...os-two-feared/

Helicopter crashes into building in Lagos
 

28AUG2020 Bell 206 JetRanger III, ex Pan African, crashed into residential area are of Ikeja (near Sheraton Hotel), Lagos, Nigeria earlier today. Two confirmed dead with one in hospital, critical. Believed to have been on photo shoot. RIP

B206 accident in Lagos 28/8/2020
 

Believed to be 5N-BQW, ex 5N-BES

Interesting to see no fire in the photos or video.

not much rotational energy in the rotor, or forward speed, either.

B206 accident in Lagos 28/8/2020
 

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....37d4fd260.jpeg
Photo taken last year. She had been parked in the ACN hanger at NAF for last 2-3 years. Flew her quite a bit with Pan. Sad end to Bessie. RIP

A view of the 206 getting taken away at .33 mark , that's one flat fuselage

From 5:56 mark,“According to eyewitness, the helicopter was seen hovering for more than 15 mins and the pilot was able to discharge the fuel before landing and that is why there is not much effect from the crash”

As usual, there is a remarkably observant eyewitness who can speculate what the pilot did.
That aircraft did not have the capability to dump fuel.

B206 accident in Lagos 28/8/2020
 

Here is a photo taken back in 2013 while still in basic Pan African color but with Helico Express titles.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....121403251e.jpg
Bell 206B JetRanger III 5N-BQW Copyright: Joe McDermott

AIB removed the wreck very quickly!

Agreed. Perhaps an engine failure and an autorotation gone wrong?

Regards,
Grog

Perhaps lack of fuel was the cause of both the engine failure and the lack of fire?

That's the most banged up 206 I've ever seen. Incredible that anybody survived.

Except out the exhaust pipes. ;)
Seems to be some open areas available, but if hovering the H/V may be involved.


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....743a6a42e3.png

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....7ccbc88bf8.png
Sounds like there might have been "other circumstance"

It's certainly non-airworthy now.

Prelim report
 

Right on the money Crab, I think most of us shared that opinion.

"Post occurrence examination revealed that the fuel tanks were empty"

There you have it....and the fact the pilots Class One medical and proficiency check had both expired probably had nothing much to do with it running out of fuel.

The report references a fuel upload to full tanks. Then only the ground run and accident flight. Something doesn‘t add up.

Either fuel upload log was wrong; the gauge faulty (and presumably low fuel warning system as well); or there was a leak or siphoning.

What's a typical burn rate in the B206 for cruise?

Depends a little on the individual aircraft, but one Longranger I flew regularly did better than 117lb per hour. Incredibly economical really.

Another had a dodgy low fuel warning calibration - always good for an adrenaline kick towards the end of a carefully planned flight.
Another started REALLY hot.
Another...

Had a colleague put the aircraft back in the hanger with not much more than fumes in it. This after having flown a customer to their destination, then taken off again and RTB - all with the low fuel light on. What a pr*ck.

Another colleague got so close to running out of fuel that the fuel pump pressure warning came on - he was in a state of shock at realizing how close he came to running out of the magic liquid.

no - the report says it did a ten minute ground run and a twenty minute test flight, after filling up the day before the accident. The accident flight lasted 2:54, so a total of 3:14 flight time plus ground running.

Then I misread the report. Thanks 212

What were they thinking?

From memory about 28 USG (184lbs) an hour, in the 206B3.
It looks as the machine had range extender so 91USG full fuel. 91:28 = 3hr and 15 min

Yeah, it ran out of fuel about the time you'd expect it to run out of fuel.

That calculation is about right. His estimate for LAG was not accurate despite using a GPS and he told Lagos tower that he had 1 hour of fuel.

Direct line from NAF to Lagos is approx 250nm on a NW track and with a headwind component (westerly to North westerly wind typical for this time of year). Inadequate planning and fuel calculations. Nig regs dictate a VFR fuel reserve of 30 mins (14-15 gals). From a planning standpoint this flight would have been flown intentionally well into VFR reserves with no contingency, and only then with a topped off tank.

Not many slices of cheese involved in this one...

Makes you wonder if the insurance will pay out if the pilot medical was not current, the proficiency check was not current, and the pilot ran it out of fuel.

Ooh, there’s one I do know; 26usg or 100lt per hour :ok:

Essential as the fuel gauge is in US gallons, delivered in litres and aircraft weight calculated in kilos. Great system in Oz :p

insurance companies get sticky if a flight wasn’t legal. Improper fuel management already puts them on the wrong side of that equation.

Given the lack of OPC, medical and competent flight planning, would it be any surprise if there was none?

Why oh why oh why don't the local authorities secure the area? The video in the first post has all of the locals climbing all over the wreckage, old people and young people and everything in between I assume looking for something to salvage.

It's a daily check to keep your mathematical skills up to date John, so you don't end up dead sticking like that 767 in Canada and the 206 that is the subject of this thread. :E

What planet do you live on?

I told them to stop, but they ignored me.

I forgot to add the conversion of litres to kilos, depending on the SG of the JetA1. Usually 0.78, a very easy number to use for multiplication :p

Half a barrel an hour!

Keep it simple!

:ok:

I see in the Sahara Reporters article they state that the 'Owners Tricked the NCAA into Obtaining Operators Licence'.

Sounds like a new term for dash.

Well, he *almost* made it.

The distance from the NAF in Port Harcourt to Lagos is, what, 250 miles? A clean and light, high-skid 206B should be capable of about 105 KIAS at 80% torque. That's 2.4 hours, give or take.. With 91 gallons onboard and 26 gph, he *should* have had an endurance of 3.5 hours with full tanks. But did they get the thing 100% full? And remember, they dicked around, running it and test-flying it for a total of .5 the day before, so that brought his endurance down to 3.0. Still, that *should* have theoretically given him a 30-minute reserve.

With no en route refueling available, he probably thought/prayed that he could make 100 knots groundspeed, which would give him 2.5 en route. But apparently the flight took 3.0. Did they not go in an absolutely straight line? Were the winds higher than predicted/planned? Can we imagine the thoughts going through that pilot's mind as he looked at the GPS and saw a GS of only 80 knots? Holy cow, what an awful, depressing feeling that must have been! But instead of turning back at the point-of-no-return, he pressed on, maybe hoping the winds would die down and he could get the groundspeed up. Tragically, that never happened.

Once we take off, pilots are eternal optimists. And that pilot's optimism caused him to run his little 206B right out of fuel. With the prospect of a long flight like that...another pilot might have stuck a couple of 5-gallon jugs of Jet-A in the baggage compartment and set down along the way to put them in. Or...the smarter thing to do would've been to top the tank off again before departure.