What: two-seater Robinson R22
Where: Game reserve outside Port Alfred, Kariega Park Game Reserve situated between Kenton-on-Sea and Port Alfred
When: 11am
Who:
Why: During a game capturing expedition, the helicopter crashed, killing the the pilot who was from KwaZulu-Natal.
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Approx location of game reserve
What: Ponderosa Aviation Inc. Rockwell Commander 690A en route from Mesa, Ariz to Safford, Arizona
Where: Apache Junction, Pinal County, AZ
When: Nov 23, 2011
Who: 6 fatalities
Why: On a thanksgiving flight that took off at 6:15, the pilot was flying to Safford and struck a rockface at the Superstition mountains. The children’s mother, Karen Perry, was not aboard. The fuselage is jammed between rocks.
The victims of the crash included Joseph Hardwick, 22, mechanic; pilot and aircraft owner Russell Hardy, 31; pilot Shawn Perry, 39; and Perry’s three children, Morgan, 9, Logan, 8, and Luke, 6.
The plane had just left Mesa’s Falcon Field when it crashed. It is a six hour hike from a campground to the wreckage. A ten member sheriff’s rescue team was flown in by chopper, and hiked down from a mountaintop.
The flight path that the pilot took is a controversial one. The FAA redesignated Phoenix airspace, raising the floor altitude for commercial traffic at almost the same height as the tallest peak in the Superstitions (5,057 feet). Planes such as this one flying east from Mesa’s Falcon Field must either go around the peak or request permission to enter commercial airspace to fly above it.
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Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer András Mihalik
What: Schulter Planungs- und Ausführungs- GmbH Robinson R44 Raven I en route from Augsburg to Salzburg Airport
Where: Teisendorf, southeast Bavaria, Germany
When: June 9, 2012
Who: 4 aboard, 4 fatalities
Why: 15 km away from his destination the pilot of a Robinson R44 Raven reported that he had to perform a precautionary landing, then disappeared from radar screens when he crashed in a forested hillside 200 meters from a farm near Teisendorf, southeast Bavaria. The pilot apparently flew into an area of sudden fog. At the time of the accident, there was low visibility, and there were low hanging clouds.
The chopper pilot had only recently finished training.
The two men and two women aboard were German.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Karl Nixon
What: Helios Airways Boeing 737-300 en route from Cyprus to Athens to Prague, Czech Republic
Where: Athens
When: Aug. 14, 2005
Who: 121 passengers
Why: Before losing radio contract, pilots reported trouble with the air conditioning system. In the flight, cabin pressure failure knocked out the pilots. They made it to Athens, but the plane ran out of fuel and crashed. Crash video shows fire fighting planes controlling fires, bodies, baggage, airplane spread over a large debris field, the tail and engines relatively intact. At the time of the crash, except for one pilot (who was observed trying to land the plane), everyone aboard was comatose due to lack of oxygen.
In the case, prosecution failed to prove that German pilot Hans-Juergen Merten and his Cypriot co-pilot Charalambos Charalambous didn’t meet the minimum standards
A Cyprus court has acquitted four former airline officials of manslaughter charges.
What: Carrier Air Wing 11 HH60 Navy Seahawk helicopter en route from the USS Nimitz
Where 13 miles south of San Diego near the Coronado Islands
When: 11:36 p.m. Tuesday
Who: The bodies of three of the five people aboard have been recovered
Why: The helicopter had been on a training exercise.
A Navajo Chieftain aircraft, operated by Ferguson Air and conducting a charter flight for Southern Air, crashed near New Providence Island in the Bahamas on December 2.
The plane took off from Governor’s Harbour in Eleuthera Island and was making an approach to the Lynden Pindling International Airport in New Providence airport when it lost power. According to the police, the pilot informed the authorities that he was facing some problems and attempted to bring the plane near shallow water before it crashed.
A 77-year-old U.S. man was killed in the accident. His identity has not yet been disclosed.
The other 10 people, including the pilot, were injured and were shifted to Doctors Hospital in Nassau.