ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 184459
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| Date: | Friday 12 February 2016 |
| Time: | 11:23 |
| Type: | Enstrom TH-180 |
| Owner/operator: | Private |
| Registration: | N180TH |
| MSN: | 10001 |
| Year of manufacture: | 2015 |
| Engine model: | Lycoming HIO-390-X |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | SE of Menominee-Marinette Twin County Airport (KMNM), Menominee, MI -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Approach |
| Nature: | Test |
| Departure airport: | Menominee, MI (MNM) |
| Menominee, MI (MNM) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The commercial pilot of the helicopter departed to conduct a flight test of an onboard data acquisition system. About 18 minutes later, the pilot decided to return to the airport because of weather moving into the area. On final approach, the pilot felt a "jolt in the airframe," and the helicopter yawed left and began to descend. The pilot added engine power, but the main rotor rpm continued to decay until the low rotor rpm horn sounded. The pilot entered an autorotation to a city street in a residential neighborhood. During the landing, the main rotor struck an electric utility pole and the helicopter slid 300 ft before coming to a stop.
A postaccident examination of the helicopter revealed that the eight mounting bolts for the engine torque meter had sheared, separating the engine from the main belt drive system. The torque meter was test equipment installed between the engine prop flange and a modified lower drive pulley for the purpose of gathering engine data during the flight tests. No other preaccident anomalies were found.
Probable Cause: The failure of the torque meter mounting bolts, which resulted in a loss of engine power to the main drive belt and rotors.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
NTSB
FAA register: http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?nNumberTxt=180TH
Location
Media:
#BREAKING: Enstrom helicopter crashes on #Menominee street: https://t.co/PAjx3CJzVJ Photo: Joe Bulin pic.twitter.com/42V9Ya9len
— WBAY-TV 2 (@WBAY) February 12, 2016
#BREAKING: Helicopter crashes in Menominee, Michigan Street https://t.co/kRE7mwLwRN Photo: Robert Brumm pic.twitter.com/03FdmOczoT
— WFRVNews (@WFRVNews) February 12, 2016
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 13-Feb-2016 06:56 | Black Typhoon | Added |
| 13-Feb-2016 06:58 | harro | Updated [Aircraft type] |
| 13-Feb-2016 07:38 | Geno | Updated [Time, Cn, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 13-Feb-2016 10:22 | Aerossurance | Updated [Time, Embed code, Damage, Narrative] |
| 09-May-2016 16:36 | Aerossurance | Updated [Time, Phase, Source, Embed code, Narrative] |
| 21-Dec-2016 19:30 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Time, Damage, Category, Investigating agency] |
| 22-Jul-2018 18:49 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Operator, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative] |
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