N417AE AS350B2 Omni Medical flight down in Georgetown SC

Aviation Aviation News
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Omniflight releases statement;

Omniflight Helicopters, Inc. regretfully confirms that an American Eurocopter AS350B2 helicopter, which took off from Charleston, S.C. airport at approximately 23:08 on Friday, September 25/09, crashed shortly after takeoff 63 miles southwest of Conway, S.C.

All three people on board, including the pilot, paramedic, flight nurse, were fatally injured in the tragic accident. The aircraft was headed to Conway, S.C. ( where the aircraft is based) and was reported missing shortly after take-off from Charleston, S.C. airport. A search was initiated shortly after the aircraft failed to report in to Omniflight’s communications center.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration representatives are en route to the scene this morning where company officials are also present. The company is working closely with the NTSB as they conduct a full investigation. No names or personal information of the crew members or passengers will be released until proper notification has been completed.

Omniflight is deeply saddend by the tragic loss of its crew members and wished to express its deepest regrets and sincerest condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives.

Local News waiting for details, sounds like it went down some time after 23:00, but searches weren’t notified of the crash until 01:20 .

News report;

Three people were killed in a helicopter crash that occurred near the Belle Isle area of Georgetown Friday night.
Coroner Kenny Johnson said the helicopter belongs to Onmi Flight, a medical transport service in Charleston.
He said the pilot, a nurse and medic were all killed when the helicopter crashed and burned in some woods off of White Hall Road.
There names have not been released.
Johnson said the helicopter was en route back to Charleston from Conway when it went down. He said contact was lost with the chopper at 11:16 p.m.
Emergency crews did not get a call until 1:20 a.m. to begin searching.
Johnson said he received a call to respond to the scene at about 4 a.m.
The Federal Aviation Administration is assisting with the investigation.

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Yet another medical helicopter crash…there have been so many.

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Does anybody here have the experience to tell us whether the number of crashes is high related to other on-demand air services?

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Here are some NTSB data regarding EMS accidents.

Click Here for NTSB data

Click Here NTSB links

N417AE airport-date photo taken earlier this year.

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Yes, EMS helicopters suffer a disproportionate number of accidents compared with a “typical” charter operation. Several reasons spring to mind.

EMS operations always involve a certain urgency. As much as operators and pilots try to mitigate that factor, it is always there. It can lead pilots to launch into weather that might be a bit “iffy” or to continue on when conditions start to deteriorate.

Location also plays into this in several ways:

  • Scene flights, those flights involving landings at or near an accident site, usually involve a landing at an off airport site. Many operators have pre-established landing zones in their area of operations (sites that have been surveyed, mapped, etc…), but many landings will be in a parking lot, sports field, or on a roadway. This naturally increases the risk.

  • Enroute flight is usually a direct routing, or as close to direct as possible, in order to get on scene or to the hospital as quickly as possible. This often puts the aircraft over terrain and rural or sparsely populated areas. Combine this with night operations and the risk of CFIT (controlled flight into terrain) or spatial disorientation go up sharply.

Time of day, as mentioned above, also plays into this. Night flight always presents it’s own challenges. Combine this with on-scene landings, sometimes to landing zones with minimal or no lighting, and there even greater risks.

There are many other things that figure in also, but these seem to be the high points. Hope that helps.

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Danke

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I remember working in ICU (nights) in phoenix Arizona, and my patient (Hispanic) was the victim of a GSW (gun shot wound) to the head, we called his family in LA and they said they would come to the hospital asap, we made sure they knew there was no hurry the doctors wont be in till tomorrow to make a decision. 3 hours later we hear on the medivac radio they are coming in from a roll over crash on I10 east of Quartzite Arizona, sure enough it was my patients family, 2 fatalities and 2 survivor, the back seat passenger who was thrown from the vehicle, reported was paralyzed from the waste down. We get the bed ready in a adjoining room. Helicopter crashes en-route, all 4 aboard perish. patient, pilot, 2 nurses. a whole family gone in about 12 hours.

now we almost never update family during the night if they are out of the area, we tell them we wont even let them in to see the patient, so discourage them traveling at night when they are tired and upset.

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The pilot of the Omniflight MH was a 20 year retired decorated Marine pilot who served in Desert Storm. He had the best training and experience and the weather was not severe.

According to the NSTB, the plane went in inverted nose first. When I look at the experience level of the pilot, the weather, the type of impact, and then the history of the N417AE, I am led to question if there was a catastrophic mechanical failure.

Question for anyone with expertise in this area. Does the previous accident report suggest anything more than just weather? Anything here suggest catastrophic failure?

Patrick was a friend of mine, so any insights are appreciated.

From National Transportation Safety Board

Brief of Accident
Adopted

09/26/2008 Accident

(Ironic - year to the day within hours)

Time (Local): 10:04 EDTAircraft Reg No. N417AE
Hiram, GA
05/21/2008
File No. 24327

The pilot stated that after engine start, the helicopter shook violently as the throttle was advanced to flight rpm. He conducted an
emergency shutdown, inspected the helicopter, and discovered that the tail rotor boom was buckled. Further inspection revealed that the
main rotor starflex arm was broken. According to the director of maintenance, the starflex arm was overlooked during a conformity
inspection. As a result, it was overflown by 586 hours. A review of a manufacturer service bulletin revealed that the service life on the
starflex arm was 2,200 hours. At the time of the accident, the total time on the starflex arm was 2,786 hours. Due to the operator’s
record keeping process, the complex component life limit historical records were overlooked.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows.
The failure of the starflex arm during engine run-up due to inadequate inspection by maintenance personnel.
Occurrence #1: AIRFRAME/COMPONENT/SYSTEM FAILURE/MALFUNCTION
Phase of Operation: STANDING - ENGINE(S) OPERATING
Findings
1. (C) ROTOR SYSTEM,STAR FLEX ARM - FAILURE,TOTAL
2. (C) MAINTENANCE,INSPECTION - INADEQUATE - COMPANY MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL
Findings Legend: (C) = Cause, (F) = Factor

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I just saw a statement from the FAA regarding the A-Star crash in S.C. Apparently the helicopter was flying in rainy conditions between two thunderstorms at the time of the accident. Don’t know the severity of the rain, but this brings up the possibility of spatial disorientation, rain induced engine failure, extreme turbulence, severe updraft/downdrafts, etc… I’ll try to find out more about the storms in the area and see if I can find a radar picture.

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Unforgiving work environment.

Coastguard air lifting submariner off Washington coast today
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/62953052.html

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The medical helicopter N417AE crashed in SC and the NTSB just released an initial report. Trying to find out what the overload is referring too.

Report is here: ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_i … 5328&key=1

Looking for info from anyone who knows what the term overload means. Does it mean the plane was overloaded in the past leading to a failure?

It had only the pilot and crew…does not sound overloaded to me.

Thoughts?

Examination of the main rotor control system which was made of control linkages between the cyclic control stick, collective pitch lever, and main rotor swashplate revealed, impact damage and multiple fractures of the torque tubes and push-pull tubes that made up the system. The breaks in the system were consistent with overload.

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Basically, the report states that the airframe and most systems show no signs of pre-crash mechanical failure. All damage to the main rotor, tail rotor, and airframe appears to be the result of the impact with trees and terrain. However, the main rotor and tail rotor controls show multiple failures due to overload.

Overload refers not to weight, but to forces in excess of the design limit of the system. Plain english? Something broke the control linkages. The report doesn’t give any indication of how these failures occured.

The most logical cause would be sudden aerodynamic forces, ie. downdraft, severe turbulence, etc…, especially since the aircraft was in an area of thunderstorms. It is highly unlikely that the pilot would be capable of putting that much force on the system, even with hydraulically boosted controls.

My gut reaction is that the aircraft encountered severe turbulence or severe downdrafts which:
1.) caused a failure of the flight controls, thereby causing the crash, or
2.) caused the aircraft to descend into terrain, with the pilot fighting all the way, and the impact caused the failure of the control systems.

Either way, I think that when the fatal event finally happened, be it control failure or impact with terrain, the pilot was completely helpless. That is to say, that no matter what the pilot did at that moment could have saved the aircraft and crew.

The report states that the helicopter departed its base at Conway, SC (KHYW), traveled south to pick up a patient at Georgetown, SC ( near KGGE) , then traveled further south to a hospital in Charleston, SC to drop off the patient. It then flew to Charleston AFB/ Intl. Airport (KCHS) to refuel before heading back to base at Conway/KHYW.

Upon departing KCHS, the pilot requested flight following to an intermediate airport, KLRO, and radar services were terminated when the pilot reported KLRO in sight. However, the aircraft did not land at KLRO, but continued northbound towards its base. I’m guessing this will fuel speculation as to whether the pilot intended to land at KLRO (perhaps to check on the convective weather?) or if KLRO was simply a convienient “check out” point at which to leave the flight following.

This accident highlights the inherit dangers of EMS operations, ie. VFR operations at night, in weather, over rural areas, etc…
Helicopter EMS is so effective because it uses the flexibility of helicopters operating under VFR to allow operations in marginal weather and to almost any location. This is almost 180 degrees from the established routes and procedures that make IFR flight such a safe mode of transport.

Hopefully new technologies will continue to help reduce these accidents. God Bless to families and friends affected by these accidents.

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FlyNYC, thanks for your two posts. Very useful.

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Well, two useful posts out of 946 total isn’t TOO bad I suppose… :wink:

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Yeah… about time you start earning your stay! :laughing:

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Thanks FlyNYC,

Pilot was a friend of mine. 20 year retired Marine with active duty in Desert Storm. He was all business when it came to flying and was held in the highest regard by the other pilots he worked with. They considered him the best among them. It was in his blood. It’s what he did…

Knowing it was out of his control helps the healing process, but still such a loss. These people put their lives on the line every day. Respect the hell out of their service.

The crash was a few miles from my house and I do recall the storms being very short, but intense. Big boomers off in the distance in the direction of the crash site. On the coast, they seem to come up almost out of nowhere.

What a shame…just a mile out from the airfield…

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Look for NTSB to label this accident as pilot error, with spatial disorientation at a contributing factor.

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but think the overload would lead to strong micro burst instead of CFIT.

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Sorry to hear it was a friend. Blue skies and tailwinds…

It may well have been a microburst. Or it could have been a rapid updraft then a rapid downdraft. We’ll probably never know for sure.