ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 280924
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| Date: | Friday 1 March 1991 |
| Time: | 14:32 |
| Type: |  Aérospatiale AS.355F1 Écureuil |
| Owner/operator: | Kent Air Ambulance |
| Registration: | G-SETA |
| MSN: | 5077 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1981 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Location: | Leysdown-on-Sea, Isle of Sheppey, Kent -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Approach |
| Nature: | Ambulance |
| Departure airport: | Rochester Airport, Kent (EGTO) |
| Leysdown-on-Sea, Isle of Sheppey, Kent |
Aérospatiale AS.355F1 Écureuil G-SETA: Damaged in a landing accident at Leysdown, Isle of Sheppey, Kent. Leysdown-on-Sea is a village on the east coast of the Isle of Sheppey in the borough of Swale in Kent, England. The civil parish is Leysdown and includes the settlements of Bay View, Shellness and Harty.
On the afternoon of 1 March 1991 AS.355 Squirrel G-SETA of the Kent Air Ambulance was responding to an emergency call at Leysdown. Not knowing the exact location of the patient's house, the helicopter landed in a local park to allow the two paramedics to disembark, ascertain the location of the patient and direct the helicopter to that. The paramedics having ascertained the whereabouts of the patient's house, and made for that, the pilot of the helicopter took off and headed for it.
Having identified a suitable landing spot proximate to the house, the helicopter started to descend. But at about 30 feet from the ground, there was a sudden loss of tail rotor control, the helicopter yawed to port and it started to rotate in a clockwise direction. It rotated more than three times before landing heavily in a slightly 'tail down' attitude, damaging the tail rotor blades and causing the tail boom to distort down and to port. The pilot shut down and vacated the helicopter without difficulty or injury. The cause of the accident was a double bed sheet! This had been hanging, unseen by the pilot, on the patient's washing line, in the garden of his house, and as the helicopter came close to this, whilst landing, the sheet was drawn into and fouled the tail rotor, preventing it from counteracting the centrifugal forces and causing the helicopter to rotate.
The helicopter was repaired and returned to service. As can be seen from the notes below, between 1981 and 2007 it has had a number of identities!
Originally C-GLKH (Canadian Registry 1981-86), then G-BNBJ (from 28 November 1986), then G-CMMM (from 9 August 1988), G-NEAS (from 17 August 1989). To G-SETA from 13 December 1989 with the Kent Air Ambulance. Re-registered G-CCAO (from 25 January 1996) then G-BZGC (from 26 March 1999 with Merseyside Police) then Cancelled from the British Register 30 August 2007 as sold to Ukraine as UR-OREL later UR-ORL.
Sources:
1. AAIB: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5422f5e8e5274a13170005d7/Aerospatiale_AS355F1__G-SETA_05-91.pdf
2. http://www.rotorspot.nl/product/as355.php
3. https://www.helis.com/database/cn/30652/
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leysdown-on-Sea
Media:
Aérospatiale AS.355F1 Écureuil UR-OREL (formerly G-SETA and several other registrations) at Nezhin, Ukraine on 14 January 2011
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 29-Jul-2022 17:22 | Dr. John Smith | Added |
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