ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 24210
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| Date: | Monday 31 May 1999 |
| Time: | 13:00 |
| Type: |  Aérospatiale AS 350 |
| Owner/operator: | Yankee Lima Helicopters |
| Registration: | F-GJCM |
| MSN: | 1988 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1987 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Eaux Claires Creek, 18nm from Camopi, Forêt Guyanaise -
 French Guiana
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | External load operation |
| Departure airport: | Cayenne Félix Eboué Airport (SOCA/CAY) |
| Camopi, French Guiana | |
| Investigating agency: | BEA |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The helicopter was based at Dégrad of Cannes (near Cayenne) was to transit the slinging area at Camopi where he had no possibility of refueling. He had on board 65 litres of fuel instead of a full load of 351 liters. The original mission was to last 1 hour 29 minutes, and for this mission, the helicopter should have had 265 liters on board, on the basis of a fixed consumption rate of three liters per minute including reserve. The final reserve holding should have been sixty liters for twenty minutes flight.
Upon his arrival in Camopi, the pilot agreed to make an additional sortie to carry two barrels of diesel to refuel a Mechanical Digger in the forest. This additional flight lasted twenty-three minutes. Return on Camopi the "low fuel" alarm lit about four minutes before landing.
The pilot estimated that he had remaining on board a sufficient amount of fuel to proceed to Eaux Claires Creek, located seventeen minutes flying time away. He took off with another sling load. During the flight, the pilot doubted that he had enough fuel to make it back from Eaux Claires Creek, so he deposited his load then left. When climbing away, the attitude of the aircraft decreased significantly, and then the engine cut out. The pilot attempted an autorotation above the forest.
He rotated the aircraft at the last moment so that the tail of the helicopter collided with the forest canopy first, before the cabin. The helicopter crashed and overturned on the right side.
F-GJCM crashed into the rainforest and its rotor opened a circular clearing. The vegetation was very dense in the area of the wreck. The cockpit was destroyed. The tail boom was not cut, it remained substantially straight. The main rotor blades cut relatively thin trees, they remained intact and attached to the rotor head. The motor was intact, it had no apparent abnormality. The fuel tank was not perforated, it contained only a few liters of fuel.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
1. https://www.bea.aero/docspa/1999/f-cm990531/htm/f-cm990531.html
2. http://www.bea.aero/docspa/1999/f-cm990531/pdf/f-cm990531.pdf
3. https://www.flickr.com/p/9wlelj
4. https://www.planepictures.net/v3/show_en.php?id=658136
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 22 August 1987 | LN-OMQ | Helikopterteneste A/S | 1 | Åsgardfonna, Svalbard |  |
w/o |
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 27-Sep-2008 01:00 | ASN archive | Added |
| 06-Jul-2014 20:31 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Cn, Operator, Location, Country, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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