ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 273197
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| Date: | Friday 11 August 2000 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Hughes 369HS |
| Owner/operator: | |
| Registration: | ZS-HFE |
| MSN: | 45-0740S |
| Year of manufacture: | 1975 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 3 |
| Aircraft damage: | |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Secondary School Groenvlei - Lansdowne – Cape Town -
 South Africa
|
| Phase: | |
| Nature: | |
| Departure airport: | FACT (Cape Town International Airport) |
| FACT | |
| Investigating agency: | CAA S.A. |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The pilot accompanied by two passengers of, which one was a Netstar Observer, was engaged in a commercial operation involving a Netstar, stolen vehicle locator/recovery operation. The weather was clear with unrestricted visibility with winds reported as variable, mainly out of the north at 5-8 knots. After being airborne for approximately 1.2 hours the pilot made a wide orbit over a suspect vehicle at a height of approximately 1 300 feet above ground level (AGL). The pilot felt a high frequency vibration through the directional control pedals and initiated an auto-rotational descent. The level of vibration felt through the airframe and tail rotor continued. At approximately 150 feet above the ground the pilot reported that the tail rotor system departed the aircraft and contacted the main rotor blades. The pilot experienced some difficulty in controlling the aircraft and stated that the aircraft had a tendency to want to 'dip to the right'?. At approximately 50 feet AGL, the pilot started to decelerate to reduce the rate of closure and applied collective to cushion the landing prior to touchdown. The aircraft started a right-hand spin and after approximately 90s? of yaw, the pilot retarded the throttle to idle. The aircraft continued a full 360s? yaw to the right and touched down in an approximate 30s? right roll attitude. On ground contact, the aircraft yawed an additional 90s? to the right as the skid gear assembly collapsed causing the aircraft to roll over on its right side. The pilot sustained a cut to his right hand with none of the other occupants being injured. PROBABLE CAUSE: When all the evidence is put together, the overview of the sequence was most probably: 1. Undetermined precipitating event on missing half of the tail rotor blade. 2. Resulting imbalance overloads the failed fork bore, liberating one side of the fork bolt. 3. The fork bolt bends and twists to failure. 4. The pitch change links fail as the tail rotor leaves the helicopter. 5.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
S.A. CAA
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
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