At 9 a m Jan 26,2013, a Hiller UH-12B helicopter crashed east of the St. Lucie-Okeechobee County line in a swamp between Okeechobee Road and Orange Avenue, west of the Adams Ranch The three men aboard,Pilot William Harward, and passengers Jonathan Strayer, 46, and Massad Ayoob, 64 were hospitalized at Raulerson Memorial Hospital.
The helicopter had been chartered to “shoot feral hogs from a helicopter with .44 Magnum revolvers” a pastime that has been called pest eradication. A blog has released that the main rotor hit treetops, and the helicopter ended up upside down.
On 27-JAN-2013, a Mooney M20J/201 en route from Ohio to Michigan made a crash landing at Warsaw Municipal Airport in Indiana when it bounced in crosswinds, crossed a runway and crashed barriers.
Pilot Thomas Kowalczk and his son Brian Kowalczk had gotten parts in Port Clinton, Michigan and Lapier, Michigan and had stopped in Warsaw to refuel.
The plane came to rest over the controls of underground fuel tanks. No fire occurred but the plane sustained significant damage.
London’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch is working the first helicopter accident in London since 1976. A review of helicopter flight regulation over the UK capital is already underway.
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.
The flight that went missing on January 23, 2013, the Kenn Borek Air de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter en route from the South Pole to Terra Nova Bay has been found.
Wreckage of the plane was found after it impacted terrain half way between South Pole and McMurdo Station.
The two helicopters that reached the crash site on Jan 26th could not land. They surveyed the area.
Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand said that
“The site of the crash is at a height of 3,900 metres (13,000 feet) at the northern end of the Queen Alexandra Range. The aircraft wreckage is on a very steep slope, close to the summit of Mount Elizabeth. It appears to have made a direct impact that was not survivable.”
The airline has the following release posted on their site:
PRESS RELEASE – KENN BOREK AIR LTD. – JANUARY 25, 2013
Friday evening Calgary time, a C130 Hercules aircraft of the New York Air National Guard made visual contact with the overdue aircraft in Antarctica. The sighting was confirmed approximately thirty minutes later by a Kenn Borek Air Ltd. Twin Otter aircraft deployed in a search and rescue (SAR) role. The crew of the SAR Twin Otter reports that the overdue aircraft impacted a steep snow and ice covered mountain slope. No signs of activity are evident in the area surrounding the site, and it appears that the impact was not survivable.
Due to the terrain and ongoing weather conditions, the SAR Twin Otter was unable to land near the site. Subject to favourable weather conditions, helicopter crews and mountain rescue personnel will attempt to access the accident site Saturday morning Calgary local time.
Further updates can be obtained directly from the Wellington Rescue Coordination Centre.
On January 24, 2013, a Central Flying Services Inc Beechcraft A36 Bonanza en route from Beaumont Municipal to Monroe Regional Airport was on approach to Monroe when it crashed for unknown reasons. Four minutes before the crash, the pilot told ATC of problems with the plane’s landing gear. ATC lost contact with the plane at 1:49 p.m. The plane crashed eight miles from the airport. Witnesses saw the plane circle and nosedive into the woods.
The plane impacted behind Ouachita Correctional Center in Richwood. The manifest says Dean Hart Sr. of West Monroe, owner of Hart Commercial Investments, and Max Larche of Bastrop, engineer with Lazenby & Associates in West Monroe and Don Thompson of Monroe were passengers aboard the flight. The three businessmen were returning from a business trip to Beaumont.
The pilot was also a fatality.
Emergency services included police and fire firefighters, firefighters on ATV. Firefighters relied on fire extinguishers to put out the blaze.
On Jan 21, 2013 at 12:45, a Helimarte Bell 206B JetRanger III en route in light rain from West Zone of São Paulo to Campo de Marte Airport with four people aboard flying over a residential area in the neighborhood of Garden Corner, crash landed on two houses in Paul Street Arentino in Jaragua in the north of São Paulo near Highway Taipas.
A resident saw the plane approaching and saw that the rear propeller stopped. Witnesses in the house say there were electrical lines entangled in the helicopter.
Civil Defense roped off four properties as unsafe.
One person aboard did not survive the crash and three others aboard, all crew, were injured but conscious when they were found. One person on the ground was also injured. Some reports say two on the ground were injured. There were four people in one house that was crashed into.
The sole fatality was the pilot, Stella Melo Marcelo Araujo, who was 29, was single and had no children. The helicopter was an air taxi but the objective was a two hour flyover inspecting, monitoring and surveying regional park areas.
Ramiro Levy (Depave-1), Bishop Fabian Barbosa (Depave-5) and Idevanir Souza (Communication), all employees of the Municipal Green and Environment were injured. Two crew members were taken to Hospital and Clinics and one to the Hospital São Camilo Emergency Room.
Five teams were sent to the crash to deal with the injured, the wreckage and the leak in the helicopter. The helicopter’s certificate valid until December 8, 2016 and had passed it’s recent maintenance inspection.
Helimarte, who operates the helicopter that crashed on Monday in ??Jaragua, north of Sao Paulo, said in a statement that the accident was the first in the fourteen year history of 35 000 flights. Everyone aboard was employed by the City of São Paulo.
On January 21, 2013, a Rotax 447 ultralight was flying, clipped treetops and crashed after takeoff.
The pilot, Randy R. Roman took off at 2:45 pm and shortly later crashed on Mendoza road in Manatee County.
The pilot was uninjured but the ultralight was a total loss. After crashing his homebuilt ultralight, reports say Roman called his wife and asked for his toolbox, without letting on anything was out of the ordinary.
He attributed his crash to “the corrosive effects of ethanol in his fuel caused…the fuel cap to flake off into the tank and plug a fuel line.”
On January 19, 2012, an Aeroclub Punta Alta I.C.A. Brasov IS-28B2—a glider— apparently improperly released from a tow plane and crashed at Punta Alta Airfield in Argentina.
Those aboard were an instructor and a student on their first flight.
Two fire crews and several police responded to the scene.
Scientific Police in Bahia Blanca arrived on the scene to conduct the initial investigation and survey of the site and the remains of the glider.
Maria Agustina Mallemaci and the glider pilot, William Hugo Santos, died from their injuries.
Did this happen because of a random gust of wind? Was this an incident that was invisible or could it have been detected or predicted? You tell me. It’s tragic, whatever the circumstance.
On January 17, 2013, ( 13:50 local time), a Habilitaciones Turisticas SA CV Piper PA-31-325 Navajo #XBEZY took off from Angel Albino Corzo Intl en route to Xoxocotlán Intl. Airport in Oaxaca but crashed on takeoff.
Aboard there were a crew of two, and six passengers, three of whom were adults and three who were minors. All eight died in the crash immediately after takeoff in Chiapa de Corzo.
Witnesses said the ship had just taken off when it was hit by a gust of wind that knocked it to the ground, where it caught afire on impact.
The plane impacted the ground at Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas and caught fire, covering the airport in smoke.
The eight fatalities were the two pilots, the captain Alfonso Jimenez Racino, co-pilot Pablo Gomez, businessman Monterrosa Melchor Hernandez, his wife, two sons and two grandchildren. Melchor Hernandez Monterrosa is an entrepreneur, owner of ‘Mezcal Fandango’ and ‘Destiladora Orizaba Valley’ in Veracruz and Puebla,
??Civil Aviation, the Mexican Army, Fire, Red Cross, Secretariat of Public Safety and Civil Protection responded to the scene. The crash also started a grass fire that took some fifteen hours to put out and complicated rescue.
A cold front, clouds and air currents may have contributed to the accident. Civil Aeronautics will be investigating.
The Wednesday January 16, 2013 crash of the helicopter that struck a crane on top of London’s St George Wharf Tower did result in two casualties. Two office buildings, 5 cars & 2 motorbikes were damaged. The AgustaWest AW109E #G-CRST was flown by Rotormotion, and leased from Castle Air.
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.
On Jan 16, 2013, a LabCorp Pilatus PC 12/45 was en route from Burlington-Alamance Regional Airport to Morristown NJ when the place crashed. After taking off from Burlington and experiencing problems, the pilot tried avoiding a residential area. The crash near the North Park Community Center occurred around 6:00 a.m. about five miles from the airport. Witnesses report the pilot either circled (or spun) to crash on the softball field. About 400 gallons of fuel spilled.
Fifty emergency responders arrived on the scene.
57-year-old David Gamble of Greensboro died in the crash. He was a LabCorp employee delivering inter-office mail. He was the pilot, the only one aboard, and an employee of LabCorp. The plane is registered as property of Regions Equipment Finance Corp.
On Wednesday January 16, 2013, a helicopter crashed into a crane and fell to a London street just south of the River Thames near the Underground and mainline train station at Vauxhall, killing two and injuring nine. London Ambulance said only one of the people they took to the hospital had critical injuries.
The crane was on top of the 50-story St. George Wharf Tower. The top of the crane was not visible from the street because of fog.
An investigation is underway, among other things questioning if the crane was equipped with lights, if the pilot committed an error, if the helicopter was fit for use, and if weather was a factor.
On Jan 15, 2013, a privately owned Bellanca Super Decathaón 8KCAB Registration YS-175-P was over the island of Cozumel in Mexico when it crashed, killing two aboard. Cabanas was not flying his own plane.
The aircraft, registration YS-175-P crashed near the perimeter road of Cozumel near the “Captain Eduardo Parra Toledo” at approximately 16:30 pm.
American Stunt pilot Fred Cabanas and television Extreme Sports commentator Jorge “Chori” Lopez for Televisa Deportes were aboard. Pilot Cabanas won awards at air shows and was a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Lopez was filming for his “Extreme Adrenaline” show. Cababas was performing acrobatic maneuvers at a private airport and Lopez was “…filming a documentary to promote an air show” when the plane overshot the runway, toppled trees and a fence owned by Eduardo Toledo. The crash site has been cordoned off by the military.
On Jan 13, 2013, a private plane with two aboard taking off from Roanoke Island crashed into the water on its second approach back to the airport.
ATC made contact with the plane before it came down with the pilot making no indication of problems.
The female passenger was rescued from the water and taken to Outer Banks Hospital. The coast guard is searching for the pilot.
The plane went down between 11 and 11:15 a.m and the weather was hazy with rolling periods of fog. Visibility on the ground was less than 30 feet.
The woman was located in the water, found by rescuers who followed her screams. They were unaware that a plane had crashed.
Hatteras Island and other dive teams were searching for the Pilot in limited shifts due to the water temperature, looking from Umstead to Virginia Dare bridges. Agencies cooperating in the search included Dare County Emergency Management, Dare County EMS, Roanoke Island Volunteer Fire Department, Chicamacomico Volunteer Fire Department, Nags Head Fire and Rescue, NC Highway Patrol, NC Marine Patrol and NC Wildlife.
On January 12, 2012, a privately owned Kestrel Hawk took off from Pattaya Airpark with only the pilot aboard and developed an engine fire while aloft.
At 6:30 pm, the pilot crashed in the area of Huay Yai near the Pattaya Dolphin World and Resort.
The ultralight was beyond repair.
The pilot, Mr. Nawaporn ”Neil” Sawaetwong, sustained critical injuries— severe trauma to his legs and arms and a head injury— and was rushed to the Bangkok Pattaya Hospital.
He was President of the Pattaya Pilot Club Association, Owner of the Pattaya Airpark & Pilot Village and C.E.O. of the Fun Flying Thai Air Service Company.
The Thai Civil Aviation Authority is investigating.
On 12-JAN-2013 at 3:30 pm, a single engine SEAWIND 3000 seaplane was taking off from Sarasota for Venice Airport when it crashed after takeoff.
The pilot died in the collision; the passenger survived with injuries. The seaplane did not gain enough altitude and struck a couple of trees. It impacted near the New College of Florida campus. The passenger, a 63-year-old man from Michigan was taken by medivac to Tampa General Hospital.
Witnesses say the plane made a sound like a gunshot before it lost altitude, missed power lines and reached a grassy field owned by USF New College. One witness saw the plane on fire before it hit the ground.
On 12-JAN-2013, at 9:00 a Celtic Bank LLC Piper PA-46-500TP Malibu Meridian en route from Fox field in Paris Texas to Austin, but crashed minutes after takeoff, in Glory Texas.
There was fog in the area at the time of the crash.
The three people aboard the plane, pilot Rob Thompson, passenger Michael Endo who was Senior Vice-President of Celtic Bank and the bank’s commercial loan officer, and Michael Dale Bradley who was owner and Real Estate Broker with MBA Realty and who was consulting on a property sale.
On January 10, 2013, a homebuilt Rans S4 Coyote went missing. A search was underway for the plane which is not equipped for night flight. Only the pilot, ERIC P HEINZ was aboard.
The missing plane was located when the pilot’s campsite was discovered, at 9:30 after it had crashed in Lake Pleasant Arizona.
The experimental plane sustained damage. The pilot survived.
The family of the victims (Arturo Rivera, makeup artist Jacob Yebale, attorney Mario Macias Pacheco and hair dresser Jorge “Gigi” Armando Sanchez Vasquez) of a 43-year-old Learjet that crashed in Mexico on December 9 have filed a negligence suit against Starwood Management LLC, Rodatz Financial Group Inc., McOco Inc. and Jenni Rivera Enterprises Inc.
Jenni Rivera was killed in the crash along with the 78 year old pilot and 20 year old co-pilot, neither of whom appeared to be licensed to operate the flight under the conditions (time and altitude) they were flying.
On Jan 10, 2013, a Robinson R44 Astro en route from Augsburg to Bretzfeld got caught up in a 380 kilovolts high voltage power transmission line and crashed on the Autobahn 6 in Southwestern Germany.
The helicopter was flying below radar.
Pieces of the helicopter hit a truck, but the driver was not seriously hurt. The accident occurred during rush hour between the junction Schwäbisch Hall and just before the Kochertalbrücke.
The pilot, 42 year old Sven Berger was killed in the crash and will have to be identified thru his dna. The remains of the helicopter are melted, burned, broken and bent, and smell like burned plastic. First responders could not get through the flames to the helicopter.
Berger was a firefighter, member of the Commerce and Industry association and owned the Schwab Bacher Kithcen Studios. The tentative cause for the accident is poor visibility. There were spots of freezing temperatures, rain and fog in Brachbach.
On January 11, 2013 at 10:10 a.m., an Australian Lightwing GR 912 was in Yorktown Tasmania. The plane, an ultralight, took off and nosedived in a vineyard next door to the airport, killing the sixty-five year old pilot.
The cause of the crash on a West Tamar property off Bowens road, just north of Launceston has not been determined.
Jan. 9, 2013
WASHINGTON – The National Transportation Safety Board is sending a team of investigators to Pucallpa, Peru, to assist the Government of Peru with its investigation of yesterday’s crash involving a Boeing helicopter. According to the U.S. Department of State, the accident claimed the lives of five American citizens.
On Monday afternoon, in Pucallpa, Peru, a Boeing-Vertol 234 helicopter, operated by the U.S. operator Columbia Helicopters, crashed shortly after takeoff. The helicopter had departed from FAP Captain David Abenzur Rengifo International Airport, Pullcapa, Peru enroute to Tarapoto, Peru. It has been reported that all seven persons aboard the aircraft sustained fatal injuries.
The NTSB has designated senior air safety investigator, Paul Cox, as the U.S. Accredited Representative. He will be accompanied by two NTSB investigators with expertise in helicopter systems and operations, a representative from the Federal Aviation Administration, and a representative from Columbia Helicopters. The team is expected to arrive in Peru tonight.
On January 10, 2013, a Windlass Aquila Trike en route from Wintervogel Airfield with an instructor and student pilot took off on a training flight. Bystanders reported that the pilot turned back toward the airputt but crashed and caught fire.
Wintervogel is a private airfield near Klipheuwel in the Western Cape. The pilot was reported to be German, and the passenger from Tableview.
Paramedics and an emergency team responded to the scene but there were two fatalities.
On January 7, 2013, Chinook helicopter (registration N241CH) Pucallpa-Tarapoto was en route near the Laguna Yarinacocha in Pucallpa Peru when it came down in the Amazon.
The helicopter took off at took off at 2:57 pm, taking a load to Tarapoto.
According to reports, although the crew tossed the load while airborne, the plane broke up in mid air and caught fire. There were seven people aboard.
There were 2 Peruvians aboard: Joel Castillo and Luis Ramos.
Five Americans: Dan Immel , Ed Córdova, Jaime Pickett, Lee Bradford and Darrel Birkes.
Those aboard were employed by Petrominerales Ltd, a Canadian-based oil exploration firm.
