Fatal AW139 SAR crash in Ras Al Khaimar, UAE (29 Dec)

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CharlieOneSix
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Fatal AW139 SAR crash in Ras Al Khaimar, UAE (29 Dec)

#1 Post by CharlieOneSix » Sat Dec 29, 2018 5:27 pm

This happened earlier this afternoon. A SAR AW139 hit the 2.8km long ‘Jebel Jais Flight’ zipline and crashed with the deaths of all four on board. The video in the article below is not for the faint hearted being visually similar to the recent Leicester City helicopter crash.

UAE SAR AW139 crash report and video
The helicopter pilots' mantra: If it hasn't gone wrong then it's just about to...
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Re: Fatal AW139 SAR crash in Ras Al Khaimar, UAE (29 Dec)

#2 Post by Cacophonix » Sat Dec 29, 2018 6:04 pm

These ziplines are a menace to aircraft and I can think of two accidents in South Africa, one a fatal Bell 206B-3 Jet Ranger crash that occurred seven years ago and then an ultralight, with a happier outcome, that occurred this year after crashing into the same zipline.

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=140490

https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south- ... he-ground/

I note, with sadness that all four members of the rescue team in the accident highlighted in the original post were killed and that the medic in the team was South African.
The three Emiratis onboard have been identified as Humaid Al Zaabi, Saqr Al Yamahi and Jassim Al Tunaiji. The fourth was a South African paramedic identified as Mark T. Al Zaabi, who hailed from Al Salehia area in Ras Al Khaimah, was leading the rescue team.
https://www.khaleejtimes.com/nation/ras ... eared-dead

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Re: Fatal AW139 SAR crash in Ras Al Khaimar, UAE (29 Dec)

#3 Post by Cacophonix » Sat Dec 29, 2018 6:05 pm

Sadly, the original proponent of the zipline touted in the Lake District (see link below) and a private Gazelle pilot and helicopter enthusiast, was killed, when returning from the backpackers hostel and slate mine he owned and ran, from where he proposed to run the line, when flying at night in poor visibility although his death was not zip-wire related . His death seemed to have put paid to the line but I note that the avaricious council have put it back on the agenda again.

https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/tra ... -reaction/

https://www.gov.uk/aaib-reports/aerospa ... march-2011

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Re: Fatal AW139 SAR crash in Ras Al Khaimar, UAE (29 Dec)

#4 Post by CharlieOneSix » Sat Dec 29, 2018 7:46 pm

There couldn't have been many more things wrong with the operation of that Gazelle - hopefully a lesson to all helicopter pilots, not just PPL's.
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Re: Fatal AW139 SAR crash in Ras Al Khaimar, UAE (29 Dec)

#5 Post by FD2 » Sun Dec 30, 2018 7:36 pm

Thanks for posting that C16 - another heart in the mouth sight.

Close encounters with wires are no doubt more common than is reported. I once came closer to one near Kilmarnock than planned - despite the crew being briefed to give it a very wide berth. It's amazing how far out from the base the outer support wires are. My responsibility and my blame but we learned about flying etc.

You can't dangle things from zip wires - even dayglo paint would soon wear off - so I guess it's down to LOOKOUT again and keep the maps up to date.

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Re: Fatal AW139 SAR crash in Ras Al Khaimar, UAE (29 Dec)

#6 Post by Pontius Navigator » Sun Dec 30, 2018 9:02 pm

Once had a baby pilot plan a cross country via TV aerials. Fortunately the flight was cancelled.

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Re: Fatal AW139 SAR crash in Ras Al Khaimar, UAE (29 Dec)

#7 Post by CharlieOneSix » Sun Dec 30, 2018 10:46 pm

FD2 wrote:
Sun Dec 30, 2018 7:36 pm
.....Close encounters with wires are no doubt more common than is reported.....
September 1974 - hico-p (who used to post here) and I proved that it is possible to fly through an 11000 volt power line and get away with it. Not much fun - it doesn't half go off with a flash and a bang and I wouldn't like to try and prove you can do it twice and survive!
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Re: Fatal AW139 SAR crash in Ras Al Khaimar, UAE (29 Dec)

#8 Post by Cacophonix » Mon Dec 31, 2018 5:11 am

There are electric pylons on approach to runway 21 left at EGSG. In the winter, on that rare sunny do in the afternoon, you are flying straight into the sun and get below 700 feet and you are entering a world of pain. A Grumman Cougar did just that and flew between the earth wire at the top and the live cables below, neatly scraping the top of the cabin and shearing off most of the tail but still managed to land, the aircraft being written off. Later the three people in a Mooney tried it again but were not so lucky with fatal consequences for all concerned. No red painted polystyrene baubles, not much to remind the unwary that they are there, only a warning on the airfield plate which everybody reads of course!

As for 1:500,000 charts they are not always up to date. Some years ago I flew up the Great Glen, rather low, both my partner and crime, another pilot who was scanning the chart in the right seat, delighted to be there in such beautiful summer weather, when I felt the need to climb as fast as the little Lycoming would allow. "What are you doing, why are you climbing, why are you so white", quoth he! "Did you not see the wires at our level strung from hilltop to hilltop", quoth I".

The wires were not noted on the chart.

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Re: Fatal AW139 SAR crash in Ras Al Khaimar, UAE (29 Dec)

#9 Post by Seenenough » Mon Dec 31, 2018 6:34 pm

Bit of old flinging wisdom.

"The older I get the higher I fly."

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Re: Fatal AW139 SAR crash in Ras Al Khaimar, UAE (29 Dec)

#10 Post by G~Man » Tue Jan 01, 2019 5:38 pm

I hit 65 kv wires September 27th 2018. Wire strike cutters work. You can see the lines on the left of the poles go to the ground.....yep, ironically I started a fire...
20180927_155043 (2).jpg
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moi.jpg
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Re: Fatal AW139 SAR crash in Ras Al Khaimar, UAE (29 Dec)

#11 Post by Seenenough » Tue Jan 01, 2019 9:38 pm

G-Man -How was it that you were flying that low?

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Re: Fatal AW139 SAR crash in Ras Al Khaimar, UAE (29 Dec)

#12 Post by G~Man » Tue Jan 01, 2019 10:39 pm

Seenenough wrote:
Tue Jan 01, 2019 9:38 pm
G-Man -How was it that you were flying that low?
I was patrolling power lines. I had a troubleman up front with me directing which way the line want, and a "vegetation person in the back marking all the areas that needed trimming. I was following a residential distribution line that was on standard wood poles. We typically patrol those lines at about 175 feet agl. I turned up a small valley following my "distribution" line, the trouble man identified the dead end of the line, pointed it out to me, (we normally turn 90 to a dead end and hover so the veg guy can look back along the line), I spotted the dead end and looked back up and saw the 3 lines at eye level in front of me, too close to turn, so I pulled power and sped up and watched each line in slow motion hit the wire cutters. Luckily the tension on them was higher than normal at 450 lbs which pulled the two ends away from the helicopter--we had no scorch marks or anything.

The ones I hit were perpendicular to thee ones I was patrolling.
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Re: Fatal AW139 SAR crash in Ras Al Khaimar, UAE (29 Dec)

#13 Post by Seenenough » Thu Jan 03, 2019 9:24 pm

Unfortunately low flying cannot be avoided with power line work.You luckily got off lightly with your incident.

I was lucky enough to be taught how deal with emergencies by lots of experienced instructors who did not always teach emergencies by the book.

On one occasion one of these guys ,who was showing me the art of slinging asked me to drop the line and climb up to 3000-ft AGL and slow the machine up to under 10 knotts.

Once I was up there he commented about something way out on the horizon on my window side.Naturally I looked over there.Suddenly the machine lurched and it sounded like the donkey quit.Before knew it the low rotor horn went off(which in a Squirrelis pretty loud) and I looked up at the blades whoch were visually slowing.

What the instructor had done was closed the throttle to idle .Training kicked in,I dropped the collective and tried to get the nose down but found that there was little response to the inputs.We were dropping like a brick and It seemed to take forever but slowly the rotor speed started to go up again and with it I began to be able to get the nose down and get forward airspeed and direction authority to where the situation became the same as normal Auto training.

At that point the instructor asked me to look at my altitude.We had dropped 750 feet before I got reasonable control of the rotor speed and the machine.

Leason learned-without forward speed and your donkey gives up at under 500 Ft AGL you are going to likely be in for a bad a bad outcome.

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Re: Fatal AW139 SAR crash in Ras Al Khaimar, UAE (29 Dec)

#14 Post by llondel » Sun Jan 13, 2019 3:03 am

G~Man wrote:
Tue Jan 01, 2019 5:38 pm
I hit 65 kv wires September 27th 2018. Wire strike cutters work. You can see the lines on the left of the poles go to the ground.....yep, ironically I started a fire...

20180927_155043 (2).jpg

Yours truly on the phone with her indoors sitting in a field luckily in one piece:

moi.jpg
Were you asking her to bring out a change of underwear?

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