Pyrénées, France
Helicopter Accident, 2020
Pyrénées, France
On Saturday, June 6th, 2020, a mission is carried out by the French air rescue in the Col de la Taillandère in French Pyrénées. The crew took off at 12h02 from the Hospital of Pau to perform a rescue mission of an injured hiker in the mountains.
The helicopter was in hover close to the mountain to onboard the injured hiker. During this moment of the rescue maneuver, the helicopter had a main rotor strike with the close terrain. Shortly after accident event, the pilot landed the damaged helicopter.
The accident event was reconstructed based on available video and flight data. In addition, a detailed terrain scan supported the reconstruction of the location of the main rotor strike event.
Based on the internal and external sounds that were recorded by the helicopters flight recorder, the duration (628 milliseconds) of the main rotor strike could be verified with the reconstructed flight path. Further the sound information allowed to determine, that each blade collided 3 or 4 times with the terrain. This result could be verified with the damage analysis of the blades.
Finally, the photo-realistic 3D reconstruction with local weather conditions, supported the accident investigation and can be used for future lessons learned training.
The helicopter was in hover close to the mountain to onboard the injured hiker. During this moment of the rescue maneuver, the helicopter had a main rotor strike with the close terrain. Shortly after accident event, the pilot landed the damaged helicopter.
The accident event was reconstructed based on available video and flight data. In addition, a detailed terrain scan supported the reconstruction of the location of the main rotor strike event.
Based on the internal and external sounds that were recorded by the helicopters flight recorder, the duration (628 milliseconds) of the main rotor strike could be verified with the reconstructed flight path. Further the sound information allowed to determine, that each blade collided 3 or 4 times with the terrain. This result could be verified with the damage analysis of the blades.
Finally, the photo-realistic 3D reconstruction with local weather conditions, supported the accident investigation and can be used for future lessons learned training.
| s-2020-06-a.pdf |