R44 down Doncaster ??
 

Rumours of R44 G-CFNF down near Bentley in Doncaster this morning. Hope occupants are ok.

https://news.sky.com/story/police-at-scene-of-helicopter-crash-near-doncaster-13460680

https://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/news/emergency-incident/doncaster-helicopter-crash-aircraft-plunged-into-field-minutes-into-flight-5381620

Confirmed : Accident Robinson R44 Raven II , Thursday 30 October 2025
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About 2km from where i am right now, was in the car and shopping in the immediate area from 0830 until about 10am, heard nothing pass overhead.

My adsb trackers (FR24 & FlightAware) almost certainly saw it. FR24 playback shows it was at 1200 ish ft from Gamston with some course changes over the lakeside area then down to 500ft just as it cleared the town centre.

Air ambulance attended and left but not to any hospital after about 45 mins

Flat open ground around there so fingers crossed for the occupants

Daily Telegraph reporting a 70 year old pilot deceased unfortunately. RIP.

Sadly the BBC are reporting a 70 year old man has died whilst the pilot (41 year old male) and two passengers (58 year old femal and a 10 year old boy) have recieved minor injuries only. A very sad incident and my thoughts go to the families of all involved.

I have less than 8 posts so someone else will have to post the BCC link to the story.

Just announced that a 70 year old man died in the incident. The pilot and 2 other pax survived. RIP.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx203g3j416o

Sadly a witness close by say a police car escorted a private ambulance to the crash site.
Reporting more people on board are walking wounded with minor injuries.

It seemed to fly over Docaster around 500-1,000 feet AGL a few mins before it went down, so possibly broke the 1,000 foot SERA rule about flying over built up areas.

What's your source for that?

Flightaware
Flightradar
ADSB Exchange

it’s not that accuract I have looked at some tracks shown after I have flown them speed and height have been totally incorrect

I've found it pretty accurate, but I guess it depends on the kit in the aircraft

Heights in particular - what pressures have been used? When I look at ADSB they don't seem to be below 1000ft

At the risk of thread drift, and this is pure armchair/keyboard educated guessing

If you take the altitudes from those three sites and adjust for 30 feet per milibar difference from 1013, that gives you a pretty accurate picture of what Altitude above AMSL an aircraft was flying.

eg if the sites say the "barometric alt" was 1,200 and local QNH on the day was 1006 mb...

1013 minus 1006 = 7 mb

7 x 30 feet = 210 feet

1,200 minus 210 = equals Aircraft was 990 feet AMSL

Elevation of Northern Doncaster is about 70 ft AMSL

900 minus 70 = 930 AGL

The average two storey builiding is 20 feet high

930 minus 20 = 910 feet



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SERA 5005:(f) Except when necessary for take-off or landing, or except by permission from the competent authority, a VFR flight shall not be flown:

(1) over the congested areas of cities, towns or settlements or over an open-air assembly of persons at a height less than 300 m (1000 ft) above the highest obstacle within a radius of 600 m from the aircraft;

I can't fathom how a chap has died, others are injured, a well respected school is living its worst nightmare and we are discussing how variables affect reported heights. Just don't get it. RIP.

Of course the adsb etc heights are another subject raised by M100S2 and condolences to all involved in this incident.

At first glance, if this was indeed an engine failure, as reported in HeliHenry’s post, it looks like the pilot did a good job. From the overhead video footage of the crash site, there are plenty of powerlines to contend with. There’s no evidence that I can see of significant forward motion at touchdown and the skids look substantially intact meaning a controlled rate of descent. I wonder if there was some yaw at touch down, or entanglement in the adjacent wire fence causing the roll-over?
JJ

And if indeed it is an engine failure I hope they pay particular attention to the FPRV after the NZ engine failure incident. As it’s a second life (or more) machine, if the FPRV hasn’t been renewed you are potentially a test pilot.

I agree jelly it looks like the pilot has done well, my question is the skids are intact it looks highly surviveable so the fatality confuses me. I dare speculate if it was a medical episode prior to the crash?

Accidents that involve people or businesses you know are REALLY hard to accept, speculation and other comments come with that and might seem harsh and sometimes very critical but ultimately the people on this forum have a genuine care and rarely proportion blame directly.

I wouldnt rely on these systems for altitude. A few years ago I was doing a photo job following a train( Hu 369 ). ADSB said I was 140 ft agl, next day in a different aircraft ( AS350 ) i was at 30000 ft !

This thread is incredibly quiet; I’m puzzled…..

Is it because it’s ‘just another Robinson’ that’s crashed?

There’s some pretty good footage on-line showing the accident site so I’m a little confused why there’s so little keyboard traffic apart from some potentially spurious interest in the height read out on FR24.

This is purely speculation and not based on ANY fact, but I would bet on something going wrong with the approach/landing (eg overpitching/not enough power) as oppose to an engine failure.

To be brutally honest, and I am not known for being PC…..

In reality:

1. Just another Robinson
2. No in-flight break up
3. No tourists
4. Not in a school yard
5. Only one death—and that of an old person not a child (I know, brutally honest right)
6. Not flight training related or so it appears
7. Not bad weather related

Absent any new information there is nothing to really speculate about. This is one of those where we just await the official report.

Was this a planned landing then, or are you talking about a forced landing?

All the reports I’ve seen are ambiguous regarding the victim’s status. One person died and the pilot and two passengers were injured. But the basic and presumably uncontroversial information about whether the victim was an additional passenger or on the ground is left open and not acknowledged (e.g. “it is at present unclear whether ….”). Is it unusual? Is this information not part of the basic facts that will always be given to the media once known?

the use of "other passengers" would suggest he was also a passenger.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c78zzezd5rlo

a planned landing gone awry

Gordy,


Please do not try to steal my thunder!:=​​​​​​​

Ha, you were slacking, it had been going a couple days…:E:)​​​​​​​

Wonder if the power cables had a role to play in the outcome.


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....935bed50b0.jpg

Rumoured locally to be all from the same familly. Very sad indeed.

it's good to see bladder tanks really changed the outcome of survivable crashes..

Looks like an almost-successful autorotation after a power loss, which sadly ended in a dynamic roll-over (perhaps due to some side drift on touchdown? The tail rotor guard looks untouched).
There seems to be many power lines in the vicinity, so it's unlikely to be an intentional landing site.

The occupants are believed to be the son, grandson and wife of the deceased occupant, who was also a helicopter pilot.

Perhaps only a pespective thing but it looks like the front end of the left hand skid has come off. We can't see the top of the passenger cabin (fortunately), maybe part of the skid was cut off by a blade? If it was a blade flapping down that low it may have impacted the canopy. Something which looks like that part of the skid is adjacent. As noted before, the skids don't look spread, if it was an auto then it looks like the pilot did everything he needed to do to get to the ground. My hat's off to anyone who gets anywhere near that close.

Do you mean the front end of the right hand skid (looking forward)? In the photo of post #32 by megan, part of the rotor is lying on the ground behind where that right hand skid would have otherwise been seen. In other views on the internet, ground may have a few gouges in the area near the tail boom, so perhaps the broken skid dug in.

From photos on internet, looks like several powerlines to contend with around field the R44 came down in, as well as the fence that it may have snagged? See photos at this link for example:

I know the pilot of this very well,

so the story is he and his family were flying to Sherburn for breakfast, they were flying at 1,000ft on the altimeter,

after Doncaster they turned right following SkyDemon track
SkyDemon reported that he was just under 1000ft so he eased back on cyclic to gain height 100ft per minute climb rate, about 5-10 seconds after this the helicopter made a huge explosion style bang which they all heard and started shaking, the pilot immediately did a 180 auto! Both the pilot and his father identified the field and battling the helicopter he successfully autod and ran on, unfortunately the field was extremely muddy as sheep were in it and as it was coming to a stop the right hand skid dug in and it went onto its side, either the iPad or the airframe has hit the passenger and unfortunately he died! The pilot, pilots son and mother were fairly lucky and had cuts!

however my friend isn’t dealing with this very well at all! He did everything he could and he was low hours too, he had only just got rated on that r44 in the summer and passed his test last January so it’s a miracle they’ve survived at all! Mentally he’s not in a good place and from speaking to him he’s having to have a lot of councilling

I was a good friend of the pilot's father who sadly died in this accident, and also know the pilot.
I spoke to the pilot at his father's funeral and can verify all of the above - it's very tragic that the father lost his life in an eminently survivable accident.
The emergency seems to have been handled perfectly, but from the pilot's comments, when autorotating an R-44 you have to 'run on' when landing, you can't bring it to a halt before touchdown - hence the almost inevitable roll-over on a very rough field.
All the best to the pilot - I hope he recovers in due course. His father really was a swell guy. RIP Pete.