ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 318073
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| Date: | Tuesday 15 February 1972 |
| Time: | 15:35 |
| Type: |  Schweizer 269C |
| Owner/operator: | King Air Services |
| Registration: | PH-KAH |
| MSN: | 35-0176 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Schinnen -
 Netherlands
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Calibration/Inspection |
| Departure airport: | |
The helicopter was tasked with a low level visual inspection of gas mains. While approaching the substation near Schinnen, the two occupants suddenly heard a metallic bang, upon which the helicopter immediately started to lose altitude. The pilot immediately decided to make an autorotation landing, and selected a field near the substation. To approach this, he would need to cross a railway line and a motorway, but it immediately became apparent that the selected landing spot could not be reached. Instead, the pilot decided to land on the motorway.
On approach the pilot realised that he was losing altitude faster than anticipated, and that without intervention the railway line would not be cleared. He increased the collective which made the helicopter gain some height, but as a result of this the RPM of the rotor decreased. With not enough RPM to flare the helicopter, it hit the ground hard on the motorway, with the main rotor slicing off the tail. The residual speed caused the helicopter to skid into the hard barriers, destroying the airframe. Both occupants sustained severe injuries.
The accident occurred as a result of the transmission between the engine and gear box breaking due to an assembly error to the clutch. The clutch had been mounted too tightly; the lack of slack in the assembly caused stresses which eventually led to its failure.
The helicopter had its last heavy maintenance in August 1971; however on September 30th 1971 maintenance had been undertaken by the owner, during which a faulty actuator had been replaced. On inspection of the wreckage it was found that the faulty actuator was mounted on the accident aircraft, which indicated that deficient maintenance was undertaken by the owner, without him being authorised to undertake said maintenance. However, while deficient maintenance could be proven, the origins of the actual assembly error which caused the accident could not be traced, since the helicopter had been maintenanced at numerous occasions between the last major maintenance and the accident date by several persons, including the owner.
Sources:
https://www.helispot.be/hs/documents/ongevallen/ph-kah.pdf
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 16-Jul-2023 19:16 | Anon | Added |
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