ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 295574
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| Date: | Saturday 5 July 2003 |
| Time: | 14:50 LT |
| Type: |  American Eurocopter AS350BA |
| Owner/operator: | Sundance Helicopters Inc. |
| Registration: | N2273A |
| MSN: | 2273 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1989 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 5845 hours |
| Engine model: | Turbomeca Arriel 1b |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 7 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Temple Bar, Arizona -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Unknown |
| Nature: | Unknown |
| Departure airport: | Las Vegas-Harry Reid International Airport, NV (LAS/KLAS) |
| Quarter Master , AZ | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The helicopter landed hard, bounced back into the air, rotated 90 degrees to the left, and struck the ground a second time before rolling onto its right side. While in cruise at 3,500 feet msl, the tour helicopter pilot experienced a "hot battery" light indication on the instrument panel. The pilot made two radio calls, but, during the response, the helicopter experienced a complete electrical failure. The pilot elected to make an immediate landing on the shoreline of Lake Mead. At 100 feet agl, the pilot reported a change in the sound of the engine. Believing that he had an unreliable engine, the pilot entered an autorotation. While in the deceleration flair, the tail rotor stinger and tail rotor blades made contact with the soft sand. The pilot leveled the helicopter, but made a hard landing. The pilot indicated that after the helicopter came to rest, he could still hear the engine operating. He activated the fuel shutoff lever to shutdown the engine. A test run of the engine revealed no abnormalities. The pilot did not follow the emergency procedures as published in the AS350BA flight manual. Paragraph 2 describes an autorotation landing; it said to resume a level attitude before touchdown, and cancel any sideslip tendency. The aircraft flight manual states that the 150 amp generator is capable of sustaining the aircraft's electrical load. The emergency checklist identifies that if the battery is isolated from the d.c. curcuit, the pilot is to "keep a watch on voltage, continue flight, according to circumstances." The emergency procedures for a battery temperature light as explained in section 3.3 of the flight manual for the AS350BA is; "Isolate the battery (push button "OFF") and land as soon as possible."
Probable Cause: the pilot's failure to follow the published electrical system emergency procedures for a hot battery, and his misjudged landing flare during the terminal phase of the autorotation maneuver at low level.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
NTSB LAX03LA225
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 13-Oct-2022 10:07 | ASN Update Bot | Added |
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