A pilot who had been serving to with flood restoration efforts in South Australia died when their helicopter broke up mid-flight after hitting a wedge-tailed eagle in northwest Sydney, a brand new report has discovered.
The eagle collided with the Bell 206L-1 LongRanger helicopter under its entrance left windscreen about 9 minutes right into a deliberate flight from Cattai to St Albans on July 9 final yr flight, the Australian Safety Transport Bureau stated in its last report on Friday.
The collision occurred about 152 metres above floor, because the helicopter crossed the Dargle Ridge.
The pilot was doubtless unable to see the hen attributable to glare from the solar, and should have been altering radio frequencies on the time it hit the plane, the report discovered.
“The pilot was likely startled by sighting the bird or the helicopter striking the bird, reacting via abrupt control inputs,” the bureau’s director of transport security Stuart Godley stated.
“Unfortunately, these inputs led to the main rotor striking and severing the tail boom, and the helicopter breaking up in flight.”
Witnesses stated they noticed the helicopter enter a speedy banking flip to the appropriate because it pitched upwards. They additionally heard the rotor beats change tone, earlier than the helicopter rolled because it descended.
One individual stated they noticed the primary rotor blades separate from the helicopter in the course of the descent.
The pilot was fatally injured after the primary fuselage hit the bottom in open farmland under the ridge.
The helicopter was destroyed in a hearth after affect.
The pilot had lately travelled to Adelaide the place they’d been serving to with flood restoration efforts, and was returning house to Cattai to safe it from flooding.
A media helicopter within the space filming flooding stopped to supply assist, and photographs from the scene captured hen stays on the left nostril cowl of the wreckage, earlier than the helicopter was consumed by the flames.
An area landowner additionally discovered extra hen stays, which was taken from the accident web site by investigators, and located to be from a wedge-tailed eagle.
Assessors consider the helicopter was flying immediately into the solar on the time of the collision, and the scale and form of the craft’s windscreen put the solar within the prime of the pilot’s view.
The pilot was additionally approaching the management boundary for Richmond, requiring they shift their imaginative and prescient as they modified radio frequencies.
“It was unlikely that the pilot saw or had time to avoid the wedgetail eagle due to sun glare and the required radio frequency change,” Dr Godley stated.
This is regardless of the climate circumstances being honest on the time of the crash.
Bird strikes are widespread in aviation, with 212 collisions involving helicopters reported to the security bureau between 2018 and 2022, Dr Goldey stated.
This was the primary in that five-year interval leading to a deadly crash.
Across all areas of aviation greater than 24,000 birdstrikes have been reported to the bureau between 2008 and 2022.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
