Broward County Helicopter Crash

I used to work on helicopters of the single and twin engine variety built by Eurocopter. Wonderful machines, but inherently dangerous by nature. I moved on, I don't do that anymore.
 
Wardogg said:
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Review of witness video revealed an in-flight fire near the area of the engine exhaust and the tailboom attach point. The tailboom partially separated in-flight and the helicopter descended in a right spin
- Report:

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Bolded part above needs correction.

Descended in a left spin, not a right one. It’s an Airbus/Eurocopter, the main rotor spins the wrong way, thus the torque direction is to the left. As opposed to the right on US helicopters.

C’mon NTSB….. QA this stuff.
 
knot4u said:
I used to work on helicopters of the single and twin engine variety built by Eurocopter. Wonderful machines, but inherently dangerous by nature. I moved on, I don't do that anymore.
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What's so dangerous about working on helicopters?

:biggrin:
 
SteveC said:
What's so dangerous about working on helicopters?

:biggrin:
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Funny you ask :)

We just had a guy who was preflighting on top of one of the helos, when another guy preflighting the tail absentmindedly rotated the tail rotor by hand to check the other blades, without checking if anyone was in the way, which rotated the main rotor behind the back of the guy on top of the cabin who was looking inside a panel, and he almost got knocked off the roof of the bird onto the concrete when the leading edge of the main rotor began shoving him off the roof.
 
Just remember. Helicopters have no friends, don’t want any friends, and don’t want to be your friend. Understand that, and the relationship will be fine.
 
MikeD said:
Funny you ask :)

We just had a guy who was preflighting on top of one of the helos, when another guy preflighting the tail absentmindedly rotated the tail rotor by hand to check the other blades, without checking if anyone was in the way, which rotated the main rotor behind the back of the guy on top of the cabin who was looking inside a panel, and he almost got knocked off the roof of the bird onto the concrete when the leading edge of the main rotor began shoving him off the roof.
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Meh. #rotorchallenge or you're nothing.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyg3X4UvD_0
 
Pilot Fighter said:
Are there mirrors on a 135 that provide a rearward view? Seems most helicopter mirrors I’ve seen provide a downward view for landing or sling ops.
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There are a host of locations on a helicopter where a fire would cause catastrophic failure and there is normally no active monitoring capacity.

We only recently got a “tail boom fire” indication into the Apache and we’ve lost 2 aircraft due to fires in the aft stowage bay. Same thing with the transmission bay. V2.2 E models didn’t have the standard fire monitoring system that was on the older D models. That was fixed later, but it was an excepted risk to operation for the Army to have no fire monitoring in an area made out of magnesium.


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Pilot Fighter said:
Dang. It seems like adequate monitoring would be cheap without a big weight penalty.
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A fire is not one to mess with though. It’s a Land Immediately EP, like I mentioned before that’s a luxury fixed wing doesn’t routinely have. Although if a fire is bad enough in anal airplane, it might become a land anywhere also. Even trying to fly a few miles back to an airport, might just be too far as it comes to a fire in a helo. Use its abilities to set down nearly anywhere.
 
MikeD said:
A fire is not one to mess with though. It’s a Land Immediately EP, like I mentioned before that’s a luxury fixed wing doesn’t routinely have.
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I alluded to the same thing in an earlier post, somewhat lightheadedly. With a helicopter fire, returning to the airport might may be a helicopter version of an impossible turn.

I’m curious when the pilot got the fire light and initiated suppression. Maybe the FDR will provide info on the timing.
 
Pilot Fighter said:
I alluded to the same thing in an earlier post, somewhat lightheadedly. With a helicopter fire, returning to the airport might may be a helicopter version of an impossible turn.

I’m curious when the pilot got the fire light and initiated suppression. Maybe the FDR will provide info on the timing.
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Even still, the suppression is strictly for the engine it’s self. Maybe an APU if you’re lucky (which likely doesn’t work in flight).

Fire anywhere else on a helicopter is a stop watch from flyable to catastrophic metal failure of some critical part. So much goes into weight savings that wholesale sections of this aircraft will burn it down in 30-45 seconds with temperatures of a 1200-1800 degrees. If we had the option of a seat, that would be the time to hit it, but since we can effectively land anywhere that’s more the option.

Only thing that scares me more than a fire is a hydraulic failure, just because there is no manual back up in anything bigger than a Huey. Once that goes you cease being a voting member of the aircraft directional control committee.


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Lawman said:
Even still, the suppression is strictly for the engine it’s self. Maybe an APU if you’re lucky (which likely doesn’t work in flight).

Fire anywhere else on a helicopter is a stop watch from flyable to catastrophic metal failure of some critical part. If we had the option of a seat, that would be the time to hit it, but since we can effectively land anywhere that’s more the option.

Only thing that scares me more than a fire is a hydraulic failure, just because there is no manual back up in anything bigger than a Huey. Once that goes you cease being a voting member of the aircraft directional control committee.


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I guess the Army doesn’t fear a shortage of freshly minted Warrant Officers.
 
MikeD said:
A fire is not one to mess with though. It’s a Land Immediately EP, like I mentioned before that’s a luxury fixed wing doesn’t routinely have. Although if a fire is bad enough in anal airplane, it might become a land anywhere also. Even trying to fly a few miles back to an airport, might just be too far as it comes to a fire in a helo. Use its abilities to set down nearly anywhere.
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Anal airplane? No wonder they kept the F-117 dark for so long, do you own a bidet?
 
Pilot Fighter said:
I guess the Army doesn’t fear a shortage of freshly minted Warrant Officers.
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There is no shortage of E4/5s who for whatever reason think that going warrant is the ticket to never going to PT or mopping a floor again.


Oh man if they only knew…


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