The search team involved more than 100 people from diverse agencies, including the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry: 25 people 5 units from the Federal Air Transport Agency; 6 people, 3 units and participating police officers, foresters, volunteers. The rescue hotline released at the time was (4822) 39-99-99.?. Four Robinson helicopters and a Mi-8 helicopter searched Saturday.

The search continued through the end of the fourteenth, and resumed the morning of the fifteenth.

At 18:11 on September 16, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that helicopters in the area of ??the village Selco Staritskogo district of Tver region, from the air sighted the possible wreckage of the vehicle. Ground forces confirmed the bodies of a man and a woman whose names were not initially released; but since then the pilot was confirmed, and the passenger of the helicopter was the head of a department of the Federal Forestry Agency, Sergei Medvedev.

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In low broken clouds with visibility of 2,300 feet, the AgustaWestland struck a crane on January 16 on top of the Tower at St George Wharf and fell to the street around 8 a.m.. The pilot had diverted to Battersea heliport due to bad weather.

Warning lights were on the building but not on the crane. (Crane lights had an allowed shut off around daylight.

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Tower at St George Wharf Helicopter Crash

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Weather people are saying that the top of the crane was not in fog but in a low cloud. (This is apparently different from fog, and might be something I should ask my pilots about. And this London. London=Fog, no?)

Four people were injured and taken to St. Thomas’ Hospital. Five injured were taken to Kings College Hospital. Seven people were treated at the scene. One of the injured was rescued from a burning car. The helicopter fell to Wandsworth Road, hit some vehicles, burst into flames; and falling burning debris started flames in some buildings. Although there were people in the area who thought the accident was a bomb and didn’t realize the helicopter had struck the crane, some witnesses saw the helicopter clip the crane and in seconds, spin out of control. Part of the crane also fell.

I think it’s nothing short of a miracle that there were only two killed and nine injured. London has 8.2 million people.

The pilot, Peter Barnes, was en route from Redhill to Elstree, but had diverted to Battersea because of the visibility. Barnes had over 12,000 flying hours, was employed by charter firm Rotormotion and had flown in the movies Die Another Day, Tomb Raider II and Saving Private Ryan.

Night officially ended thirty minutes before the crash, at which time lights on tall structures were allowed to be turned off. The lights are not visible during fog and bad weather.

The accident resulted in some subway/tube/station closures.

The wreckage will be taken to the Air Accidents Investigation Branch at Farnborough, Hampshire, and a report will take several months. The AAIB site announces The AAIB has sent a team to investigate a helicopter accident in Vauxhall, London – 16 January 2013.

Video

The post London Helicopter Crash Continued first appeared on George Hatcher's Air Flight Disaster.

Two entertainers, Ramsey Nouah and Timi Dakolo who were presumed dead were not aboard a helicopter. They missed the charter flight to Oronto Douglas’s father’s funeral.

The post Two not Fatalities of Nigerian Helicopter Crash first appeared on George Hatcher's Air Flight Disaster.

In poor visibility and blowing snow, the 442 Transport and Rescue Squad hoisted Search and Rescue Teams 300 feet through trees to the waiting snowboarder who was retrieved, then flown to Vancouver International Airport and handed over to B.C. Ambulance.

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Several politicians had traveled to Bayelsa for the funeral of the father of Mr. Oronto Douglas, the President’s Special Adviser on Research and Documentation.

Also aboard was former national security adviser Gen Owoye Azazi. The rest of the casualties are governor’s aide, Dauda Tsoho and Warrant Officer Mohammed Kamal who is Azazi’s aide as well as the pilots, Commander Murtala Mohammed Daba and Lt. Adeyemi O. Sowole.

The helicopter crashed five minutes after it took off, between 3:30 and 4 pm around Nembe-Okoroba area. Witnesses say the helicopter nosedived, then was a crash, and the chipper burst into flames. There was a big burst of black smoke.

Search and rescue operation was performed by a combined team of personnel from Joint Task Force (OPS PULO SHIELD), Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Air Force, NEMA and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps. The remains have been taken to Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital.

Another chopper with registration number 5NBOR carried other aides and security details to Port Harcourt without incident.

The crash is under investigation.

The post Nigerian Officials Die in Helicopter Crash first appeared on George Hatcher's Air Flight Disaster.

The pilot was en route to pick up a patient but needed to divert to another airport due to weather. The helicopter crashed three miles south of Eastland.

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Toluca Airport lost contact with the helicopter an hour prior to the accident.

The pilot Miguel Angel Rodriguez Lopez, co-pilot Rodolfo Caballero and the passenger, Armando Hinojosa-Garcia, were killed in the town of Juquipilco when the Augusta 109 chopper they were in crashed close to the Jiquipilco-Temoaya road, in the State of Mexico, North of Mexico City.

Search patrols located the wreckage early Sunday morning in a place known as “Hill of Alpine”

A Civil Aeronautics investigation is underway.

As always, we offer condolences to the families.

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The Minister was scheduled to inaugurate a power sub-station.

Munda sustained several injuries but is in stable condition at the ICU of Apollo Hospital.

On reaching Kuchai, the pilot had informed ATC that the helicopter had developed a rudder control problem. At Birsa Munda Airport, the pilot made four attempts to land, and then hovered to exhaust fuel. There was no fire when the twenty-year-old helicopter went down, as the fuel supply was exhausted.

The DGCA is investigating, and has appointed Sanit Kumar as the I.O.

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What: Governo do Est. de Goiás, opf. Policia Civil de Goiá AgustaWestland AW119 MkII Koala Enhanced
Where: Near Piranhas, state of Goiás Brazil
When: 08-MAY-2012
Who: 8 aboard, 8 fatalities
Why: An AgustaWestland AW119 MkII Koala Enhanced helicopter was participating in a reconstruction of a murder on a farm in Goiás, and crashed. The eight people aboard included The accident victims are the delegates Jorge Moreira, Osvalmir Carrasco (pilot), Vinicius Baptist, Bruno Carneiro (copilot), the superintendent of the Judicial Police, Antonio Goncalves, experts and Marcel de Paula de Paula Fabiano and suspected murderer, Ali Ahmad Souza.

The helicopter had been inspected Monday.

The Ministry of Justice and the National Civil Aviation Agency was bitufued, The Secretary of Public Security of Goiás, John Furtado will be supervising rescuers and the investigation.

Eyewitness accounts disagree. One witness says the aircraft was spinning on its axis and falling, another says it exploded in midair.

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What: ORNGE AugustaWestland air ambulance en route from Billy Bishop island airport to a patient west of Toronto
Where: Colonel Samuel Smith Park south of Lake Shore Boulevard West.
When: March 23, 2012, 6:00 pm
Who: 2 pilots, 2 medics
Why: While en route to pick up a Toronto patient, the air ambulance door opened and a window blew out. The pilots had to make an immediate emergency landing near Humber College.

No one was injured, but they had been in jeopardy. Sn ORNGE insider said if the door or window hit the tail rotor “it could have been catastrophic.”

Two aircraft engineers removed the faulty door. The flight crew flew the chopper back to the airport for examination.

A known problem of the AW139 is the helicopters tail rotors. An EASA directive of Aug. 19 2011 ordered helicopter owners to replace the tail rotors after 600 hours of flight following a fatal accident “possibly caused by cracks in a TR (tail rotor) blade.”

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EASA issued an air worthiness directive for the AW139. A directive from the European agency last Aug. 19 ordered helicopter owners to replace the tail rotors after 600 hours of flight following a fatal accident “possibly caused by cracks in a TR (tail rotor) blade.” A Feb. 17 directive called for inspections and maintenance of the tail rotors every 25 hours in the air.

In Ontario, Augusta Westland helicopters are in use as air ambulance helicopters. Ornge Founder Dr. Chris Mazza was fired, and an investigation is underway.

ORNGE helicopters are forbidden from entering U.S. airspace and must land at the border and use land ambulances. Issues relate to ORNGE’s new AgustaWestland helicopters, not the old fleet. A ground protocol exists for transporting burn unit or neurology bed patients. Former deputy minister of government services Ron McKerlie is now interim CEO of ORNGE, now non-profit.

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What: Gobierno del Estado de Mexico Agusta A109S Grand
Where: Peréz Valenzuela (street), Del Carmen district, in Coyacán, Mexico
When: Oct 21, 2011
Who: 4 aboard, 2 fatalities
Why: If you imagine going about your normal daily life, you do not expect a chopper to fall in the street, crush your cars and slam into your house.

A chopper owned by the government of Mexico fell in the streets of Coyoacán, between Guillermo Pérez Valenzuela and Avenida Universidad, landing on two vehicles and striking the wall of a house. Because of a fuel spill, the area was cordoned off.

The chopper is an Agusta A-109-S Grand, XC-EDM

Initial coverage was confusing and indicated no fatalities, then three fatalities, then two fatalities with identities unknown.

Eventually two people were confirmed to be deceased, and two as survivors, but the identities took some time to sort out. Two names were released: Juan Estevan Rodriguez (Ruiz Rodriguez) and Julius Caesar Maturano Gomez were reported to be the fatalities—that is, one of the pilots, and the assistant of the secretary of Metropolitan development. We can assume this is correct because of reports of officials attending the funerals in #7 Rue insurgentes in Sapotian neighborhood, Santa Maria Cuevas, Zumpango.

Fernando Alberto Garcia Cuevas (the government official) and the surviving pilot were rushed to Hospital Ángeles Pedregal by emergency responders. Cuevas suffered bleeding of a kidney, which is being addressed by catheter embolization. The surviving pilot, Juan Manuel Ramírez Rivera will be undergoing surgery for broken vertebra in his chest, when he is stabilized.

The pilots attempted to land and save the lives of their passengers and we acknowledge their heroic effort.

Our sources have one photo of the chopper in question:

Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Luis Tena Orozco – AeroImagenes de Mexico

There was significant confusion in the reportage, so that based on reported coverage, all I can say is this:

There may have been a flaw in the rotor of the aircraft, though it is not clear if it was something that the pilots had been informed of prior to the flight, or if there was a failure during the flight. There was also a statement published that the chopper fell out of the sky, and was seen plummeting, and that the rotor stopped because the hasp detached (or did not detach) from the main rotor. I am sure the truth come out in the investigation; it is too soon to know what happened, but if any parties in the know want to comment or make corrections, we welcome the input.

As always, condolences to the families of Rodriguez and Gomez, and best wishes to the recovery of the injured.

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What: Senior Táxi Aéreo Agusta Westland AW139 from oil platform to Rio de Janeiro
Where: in the Campos Basin, Rio de Janeiro
When: August 19, 2011, 17:15
Who: 4 aboard, 4 fatalities
Why: On Friday afternoon, the chopper charted to Brazilian oil major Petrobras set out from the PetrobrasP-65 platform en route to Macaé.

While miles from shore, the crew declared emergency, and went down 100 km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. Contact with the chopper was lost at 17:00 local time.

A Bandeirante Patrol plane and two search Brazilian military aircraft, the 4th Squadron of the 7th Aviation Group, a H-34 Super Puma helicopter, and the 3rd Squadron of the 8th Aviation Group initiated a search for the downed Senior Táxi helicopter. In all, there were five aircraft, a helicopter and four ships, including a Guajará Navy patrol vessel and a Lynx helicopter on standby in the area.

After two days of searching in rough seas, three bodies were found on the ocean floor 100 meters down and 62 miles from the coast. One body is still somewhere in the ocean.

The fatalities are listed as Rommel Oliveira Garcia, pilot, Lauro Pinto Haytzann, co-pilot, both employees of Senior Air Taxis, and passengers Ricardo Leal de Oliveira from the company Engevix, and Joao Carlos Pereira da Silva, the Brasitest inspector.

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