ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 184340
This information is added by users of ASN. Neither ASN nor the Flight Safety Foundation are responsible for the completeness or correctness of this information.
If you feel this information is incomplete or incorrect, you can submit corrected information.
| Date: | Monday 18 December 1989 |
| Time: | 12:07 |
| Type: |  Bell 206B Jet Ranger |
| Owner/operator: | Starline Helicopters Ltd |
| Registration: | G-SHBB |
| MSN: | 2291 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 5 / Occupants: 5 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Blackbush Shaw, near Cudham, 2 miles ESE of Biggin Hill, Kent -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Passenger - Non-Scheduled/charter/Air Taxi |
| Departure airport: | Biggin Hill, Kent (BQH/EGKB) |
| Folkestone Racecourse, Folkestone, Kent | |
| Investigating agency: | AAIB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
Written off (destroyed) 18-12-1989 when crashed near Cudham, 2 miles east of Biggin Hill Aerodrome, Kent. All five person on board (pilot and four passengers) were killed.
At midday on 18 December 1989 Bell Jet Ranger G-SHBB took off from Biggin Hill Airfield, with a pilot and four passengers on board, to fly to Folkestone Racecourse. However the weather conditions deteriorated rapidly and only seven minutes into the flight the pilot reported that he was unable to maintain visual contact with the ground and was turning back to the airfield. Nothing more was heard from the Jet Ranger but five minutes later it was reported that there had been a crash.
Witnesses on the ground, who had seen the Jet Ranger, commented that it sounded mechanically abnormal. Others said they saw it turn back in the direction of the airfield. Yet more said that they saw it come out of low cloud and continue to descend to where it crashed. More witnesses still saw it flying low for half a minute before its nose dropped and it crashed into trees. First at the crash site was a team of police dog handlers, who had been undertaking an exercise in the locality. There was no fire but the police found no survivors of the crash. The Jet Ranger had descended at speed and was largely destroyed on impact. Its registration was cancelled by the CAA on 12 February 1990. The AAIB opined that the crash was not survivable.
The Jet Ranger crashed approximately two miles east of Biggin Hill Airfield, into the wooded side of a valley called Blackbush Shaw (which is about 480 feet above sea level). It had descended rapidly (over 80 feet per second) at a steep angle (about 40º to the horizontal), passing through the upper branches of trees (which broke the tail boom but did not deflect its course) before hitting the ground at speed and with force. It broke up on hitting the ground, the wreckage remaining spread largely around the crater created at the point of impact.
A subsequent examination of the wreckage by the AAIB revealed no evidence of pre-crash structural or mechanical defects in the Jet Ranger. Nor was evidence found of any problem with its flying control systems. Although some fuel contamination, drive component wear and cabin glazing misting issues were noted by the AAIB, as was the fact that the directional gyro indicator (DGI) had been removed (which would have made flying in cloud more difficult), the conclusion that the AAIB reached, as to the cause of the crash, was that, probably, the Jet Ranger had entered cloud (instrument meteorological conditions) unintentionally and that therein the pilot, who did not have an instrument rating on his licence and had no actual instrument flying experience, became spatially disoriented. It would appear that this led to him losing control of the Jet Ranger and not having the altitude or time to rectify that when the Jet Ranger broke out of cloud in its descent to the ground. The AAIB also noted that the absence of the DGI would have made the pilot's 'in cloud' predicament more difficult.
Cudham is a village in Greater London, England, located within the London Borough of Bromley and beyond London's urban sprawl. It is located on the Greater London border with Kent, bordering the Sevenoaks District. Cudham lies south of Orpington and north west of Sevenoaks
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
1. Sevenoaks Chronicle - Thursday 21 December 1989
2. AAIB: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5423017540f0b61346000b8f/Bell_206B__G-SHBB_02-90.pdf
3. CAA: https://siteapps.caa.co.uk/g-info/rk=SHBB
4. http://www.griffin-helicopters.co.uk/accidentdetails.aspx?accidentkey=6
5. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1992/jul/15/air-accidents
6. https://www.airteamimages.com/bell-206-jetranger_G-SHBB_-private_395163_large.html
7. https://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=17922.0
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cudham
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 10-Feb-2016 00:11 | Dr.John Smith | Added |
| 10-Feb-2016 00:17 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Location, Narrative] |
| 21-Jul-2022 23:24 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Location, Source, Narrative, Category] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
The Aviation Safety Network is an exclusive service provided by:
Quick Links:
| ASN Home | Send Correction / Feedback |
| FSF Home | Disclaimer | Copyright |
| Contact Us | Privacy Policy |
| Press / Media |
CONNECT WITH US:
©2024 Flight Safety Foundation