ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 230202
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| Date: | Friday 25 October 2019 |
| Time: | 12:30 |
| Type: |  Robinson R44 Raven |
| Owner/operator: | Private |
| Registration: | ZT-RAL |
| MSN: | 1279 |
| Year of manufacture: | 2003 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 3 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Sinoville, Pretoria -
 South Africa
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | Pretoria-Wonderboom Airport (PRY/FAWB) |
| Pretoria-Wonderboom Airport (PRY/FAWB) | |
| Investigating agency: | CAA S.A. |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
A Robinson R44 helicopter with three pilots on-board took off from Wonderboom Aerodrome (FAWB) to conduct instrument rating revalidation in accordance with the Regulator (South African Civil Aviation Authority). On-board the helicopter were the DFE (instructor), the pilot conducting the rating revalidation, and an authorised officer (AO) from the Regulator’s personnel licensing department (PEL). Both exercises were conducted simultaneously and were completed successfully. Thereafter, the helicopter headed back to FAWB with the pilot on flight controls. During landing, the instructor felt that the pilot’s landing approach was not good and decided to take over controls for a go-around. During a climb at approximately 200 feet (ft) above ground level (AGL), the helicopter’s low rotor revolutions per minute (RPM) warning horn went off, the instructor corrected it and maintained climb. At approximately 300ft AGL, the helicopter’s low rotor RPM warning horn went off again with the low rotor rotation lighting illuminating. This time, the instructor could not recover from the low rotor RPM condition. The helicopter’s height was low. Due to insufficient height and the helicopter flying over a built-up area, the pilot opted to execute a forced landing on the road (Marjoram Avenue) in Sinoville. Autorotation was not possible because of insufficient height, however, the instructor focused on guiding the helicopter to an identified landing zone to avoid impacting buildings as it was flying over a populated residential area. The main rotor first clipped some treetops, then cut through some branches before striking a streetlight pole. The helicopter was destroyed during the accident; the DFE and the pilot conducting the rating revalidation had minor injuries, while the AO sustained serious injuries.
The investigation revealed that it is likely that following the instructor’s abrupt taking over controls of the helicopter, he may have rolled the throttle the wrong way or pulled more collective pitch than power available during a go-around. That resulted in the rotor RPM drop and the blades trying to maintain the same amount of lift by increasing pitch. As the pitch increased, the drag also increased, which required more power to keep the blades turning at the proper RPM. When power available was no longer sufficient to maintain RPM, and therefore lift, the helicopter began to descent; and the pilot elected to execute a forced landing, which was unsuccessful.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2019-10-25-helicopter-goes-down-in-pretoria/
https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/pretoria-helicopter-crash-wonderboom-updates-photos/
Media:
Three men survive helicopter crash in a Pretoria street https://t.co/VDY0PgKtU3 Fortunately, all three men escaped serious injury and declined transportation to a nearby hospital. pic.twitter.com/NSi4UkhpUC
— JG (Johan) van Zyl ✍ (@JGvanZyl_ZA) October 25, 2019
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 25-Oct-2019 12:51 | gerard57 | Added |
| 25-Oct-2019 13:09 | RobertMB | Updated [Aircraft type, Cn, Source, Narrative] |
| 25-Oct-2019 19:31 | Iceman 29 | Updated [Embed code] |
| 26-Oct-2019 08:54 | helis | Updated [Embed code] |
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