Two dead, two critical after helicopter crashes in Broome suburb

[farri]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-04/broome-helicopter-crash-two-dead-two-injured/12423108

[Flightrite]

?? Tragic. A task for the new PC24, hope the survivors make it!

[Jerry_Atrick]

Yes, hope the survivors pull through... and condolences to family and friends bereaved...

[onetrack]

This is terrible. The pax were a man and woman and two young girls. The man died at the scene of the crash, one 11 yr old girl died shortly after the crash in Broome Hospital. The woman and the other girl survived with critical injuries.

The media is being quiet on any further news. It sounds like a family outing that ended in disaster. The crash site is on a street in the Light Industrial Area (LIA) in the far Northern reaches of Broomes suburbs.

I trust they find the source of the reason for the crash pretty soon. The Robbies crash record has been slammed, but the figures show they are as safe as any other chopper, and many Robbie crashes are pilot-induced.

[facthunter]

Smaller heli's lack rotor inertia. Nev

[marshallarts]

Just heard a while ago that the pilot (one of the deceased) was Troy Thomas, the guy who started up the fantastic Horizontal Falls tourist operation quite a few years ago now. It was sold to Journey Beyond a year or so ago but he was still working for them. He was obviously a guy who made things happen, so will be a big loss to Broome and the Kimberley.

[onetrack]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-05/troy-thomas-killed-in-broome-helicopter-crash/12423668

 

Overloading is always a potential problem and often a reason behind chopper crashes - but with two young girls aboard, one would have to say the overloading scenario is unlikely.

[onetrack]

The young girl that was initially in critical condition is Troy Thomas' daughter. Her condition has now been listed as "stable". The 23 yr old injured woman is still in a critical condition.

I heard the media say the chopper was "recently serviced". Could be a clue there, the chopper had not long taken off. The W.A. Police have stated "an issue" developed in the air, but have not elaborated on those words.

[Jase T]

. The Robbies crash record has been slammed, but the figures show they are as safe as any other chopper, and many Robbie crashes are pilot-induced.

 

You know the old saying, lies, damned lies and statistics! I remember reading that the R-22 was at one time both one of the safest and most dangerous helicopter in the world. If you purely on number of crashes per year it was by far the most dangerous. If you went by crashes per hour flown as a type world wide they were very very safe.There are just so many out there!!! I guess the 44 can be looked on the same way.

[farri]

Terrible tragedy! but had it come down on a house or a car full of people??? My deepest sympathy to all those involved.

 

Franco.

[Downunder]

In my recent Kimberley trip, I was amazed at the number of 22's and 44's about.

Fitzroy Crossing has a couple of dedicated businesses in hangars and there's about eight side by side in another hangar. Mostly 22's.

Kununurra had a few and there was quite a number at Newman with a few repair/servicing operations out of some hangars. A couple of Ranger somethings also parked up.....

[onetrack]

The ATSB Chief Commissioner, Greg Hood has been quoted as stating - "ATC provided clearance for the aircraft to become airborne about three nautical miles north of Broome airport".

 

"[Control] observed the aircraft to climb above the treetops, when the aircraft appeared to enter a spin, and impact terrain in the industrial area just north of Broome."

 

From the eyewitness reports, it is starting to appear like a mechanical failure in the drive to the tail rotor, or in the tail rotor itself, is going to be the focus of investigations.

[onetrack]

Well, the crash cause is now pretty obvious. Tail rotor, gearbox and empennage separation in flight.

 

ATSB quote:

 

"The tail rotor gearbox assembly, tail rotor, and empennage assembly separated soon after the helicopter lifted off".

 

A previous pilot of the chopper reported "unusual vibrations", but upon examination, ground crew are reported as having done testing, and found nothing wrong. But something was obviously very wrong, and they failed to pick it up.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-10/atsb-says-tail-rotor-separated-before-broome-helicopter-crash/12443298

[onetrack]

The area of greatest concern with this R44 is that it was built in 2018, and had only accumulated 268 hrs, TTIS.

 

One can only surmise the tail area must have been damaged inadvertently at some stage, and no-one picked it up. Ground-handling damage, perhaps?

[Flightrite]

Risky contraptions. I always wanted to drive Helo's but when I got involved in A/C maint I soon changed my mind! RIP, sudden death is traumatic for so many left behind!?

[Jerry_Atrick]

RIP and condolences to their family and friends. A terrible tragedy that I know if it happened like that to a loved one, I would not be in a good space.

[onetrack]

The ATSB has released a preliminary report on this crash today, and still nothing has been discovered as regards the cause of the crash.

 

https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2020/aair/ao-2020-033/

[Datson]

If the rotor gearbox, rotor and empennage separated from the aircraft then that indicates an attachment failure. Given the size and function of those components I guess that they would have been attached by several bolts to a structural part of the aircraft. So it seems strange that the cause of the attachment failure was not readily apparent upon examination eg missing/broken bolts, broken attachment points, etc. Be interesting to know the details of the attachment setup.

[onetrack]

I get the impression from the photos the entire tail structure (rotor, gearbox and driveshaft) tore away from the tail boom cone. So the suggestion is the tail boom cone structure failed catastrophically.

There are eyewitnesses who saw the tail rotor and gearbox fall off in flight shortly after takeoff.

But the ATSB are being very careful with the investigation and obviously want to find why the structure actually failed.

Bear in mind it underwent inspection and ground testing just prior to the crash, and nothing was found wrong.

But both the pilots picked up kickback vibration through the pedals in previous flights, and they were obviously interested in finding out why this was happening.

However, the fact that the engineers didn't carry out a hover test, with actual flight, seems to me to be a major inspection error.

One always tries to replicate the appearance of a problem or problems by testing as closely as possible to the actual conditions where they appear.

Then there's the possibility that cracking of the structure was overlooked in the hunt for a mechanical moving part that was being pinpointed as the potential problem.

 

I can recall a media Jetranger crash in central Sydney in the 1970's where the tail rotor failed catastrophically. It took the investigators quite a while to find that an important washer was missing from one of the tail rotor bolts.

They had to find whether the washer failed in flight and flew off, or if it was left off in recent repairs.

They then went through the rubbish bins at the maintenance facility and discovered the missing washer. It had inadvertently been missed and left off, upon re-assembly.

 

Edited September 3, 2020 by onetrack

[Cyrano]

I won't put up the link but in utube "helicopter crash sydney 1966" will find it..

[Cyrano]

With only 291.0 hrs on the Broome airframe it will be an interesting investigation.

[onetrack]

1966 it was, thanks Cyrano. I should have rechecked the year.

[Jase T]

It could (and i am being an armchair investigator here) be as simple a shedding one tail rotor blade. The vibrations from that would probably remove the TR gearbox from the aircraft. The weight shift combined with fuse rotation probably did the rest!!

[RFguy]

that was the one covering the city to surf from memory ?

[onetrack]

The West Australian Coroner has denied the need for a coronial inquest into this devastating Broome crash. The parents of the 12 yr old girl killed wrote to the Coroner requesting an inquest, but the Coroner wrote back to their lawyers, stating that there was no need for an inquest, he has enough information to determine a finding for the crash, without an inquest.

 

I personally believe this is a poor decision, and it lets a lot of people off the hook. The pilot, once again, was lauded as an outstanding individual - but the less-than-outstanding record he left behind, was that;

 

1. He was flying without a licence

2. He failed to follow recommendations in the POH to thoroughly investigate any unusual vibrations during operation of the Robinson

3. He failed to apply the recommended procedure for responding to a tail rotor emergency.

 

This a simple tragedy that should never have happened if professional procedures were followed, and if adequate oversight was in place. CASA can't exactly claim to have clean hands in this disaster, either.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-03/amber-millar-coronial-inquest-fatal-broome-chopper/103060250