ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 272964
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| Date: | Saturday 18 October 2003 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Bell 206B |
| Owner/operator: | |
| Registration: | ZS-HTR |
| MSN: | 2556 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1978 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 3 |
| Aircraft damage: | |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Ansley beach at a position: (S 29° 53’ & E031° 03’) -
 South Africa
|
| Phase: | |
| Nature: | |
| Departure airport: | FAVG (Virginia Airport near Durban) |
| FAVG (Virginia Airport near Durban) | |
| Investigating agency: | CAA S.A. |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
On 18 October 2003, at approximately 0530Z, the pilot arrived at JNC Helicopters CC where he was tasked to fly a beach patrol. At approximately 0730Z, after completing his pre-flight inspection, they took off for a flight to the Ballito area, via the harbour mouth. On reaching Ballito, it was decided to travel further north to between Zinkwazi and the Tugela river mouth. At the Tugela river mouth, they then turned around and flew to Umhlanga Rocks, where they landed at approximately 0840Z. At approximately 1020Z they took off again and travelled south to the Scottburgh area. Upon reaching Scottburgh the pilot decided fly a little further. He turned around just before reaching Sezela and headed north for an intended full stop landing at Virginia. Abeam Ansley beach, at approximately 1125Z, while flying at a height of about 250 ft AGL at approximately 90 mph (miles per hour) and approximately 50 ft off shore, the helicopter yawed to the left and the low rotor RPM warning sounded. The pilot immediately lowered the collective pitch lever and at the same time turned the helicopter into wind and transmitted a brief May-Day call to Durban ATC (Durban Air Traffic Control) on the frequency 118.7 MHz. At this time the helicopter was approximately 30 ' 40 ft above the water and the rotor RPM was approximately 75%. A hard landing was executed on some rocks, about 10m from the shore line. A short while later the helicopter was washed off the rocks into the sea by wave action. The occupants escaped unharmed. The helicopter sustained extensive damage to the skids during the landing on the rocks. Shortly after the landing the waves rolled the helicopter over onto its starboard side. During the recovery process, considerably more damage was caused to the helicopter. Available records indicate that the aircraft was correctly maintained and according to the pilot fine weather conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The final entry in the aircraft's Flight Folio indicate the duration of the accident flight to be approximately 2.2 hours. PROBABLE CAUSE: It would appear that the engine failed as a result of fuel exhaustion, which required the pilot to execute a forced landing while off shore and subsequently executed a hard landing onto rocky terrain with the aircraft rolling over into the water.
Accident investigation:
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Sources:
S.A. CAA
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
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