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    Wildfire Crash Update


    While on it’s third run from Helispot 44, at an elevation 5,935 feet, to Helispot 36, at an elevation of 2,516 feet, ferrying firefighters from a remote mountain site in the Shasta-Trinity forest, the Sikorsky S-61N helicopter crashed killing 9.

    Fortunately, the voice-data recorder was determined to be intact despite fire damage. The investigation so far has found that the chopper’s main rotor lost power during takeoff. After the rotor malfunction, witnesses say the helicopter struck trees and slammed into the hillside. Four of the thirteen passengers–three fire fighters and the co-pilot–survived. The co-pilot remains hospitalized.

    Read profiles of the victims here

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    UTair Crash at Nizhnevartovsk


    Pictured: A UTair Aviation Mil Mi-8T
    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact photographer Schelakovsky Maxim

    What: UT Air
    Where: 350 kms from Nizhnevartovsk, Russia
    When: July 2 2008
    Who: 9 fatalities, 13 aboard
    Why: The helicopter was on landing approach when according to witnesses, it caught fire and crashed. Apparently one of the black boxes survived and is being studied. The crew survived the crash.

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    Legacy Crash Murieta CA


    Pictured: A Lancair Legacy 2000
    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact photographer Connector

    What: Poulin L/Cullen D Lancair Legacy
    Where: Murrieta, CA
    When: May 30 2008
    Who: 2 aboard, both fatalities
    Why: The Lancair Legacy was heading south to the runway, made a hard right turn and nosed into the ground with one “loud engine rev” before the engine ” died out.” The propeller was not under power when it impacted terrain. The wings, wreckage, vegetation, and ground did not indicate signs of a fuel spill. It appeared that the airplane had run out of fuel and stalled on approach, causing it to enter a spin prior to impacting terrain in a near vertical attitude. Cited as cause was the pilot’s inadequate preflight planning, which resulted in the loss of engine power.

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    Taca A320 Overrun in Tegucigalpa


    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact Photographer Mario J Craig

    What: Taca A320 en route from San Salvador (El Salvador) to Tegucigalpa (Honduras)
    Where: Tegucigalpa
    When: May 30th 2008
    Who: 124 passengers and 11 crew
    Why: On landing at Tegucigalpa, the A320 overran the runway of Tegucigalpa Toncontin Airport’s runway 2. The crash occurred in bad weather. Overrunning the runway, the plane continued to crash into a store and cars.

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    Catalina Island Express Crash


    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact photographer Jerry Search

    What: Island Express Helicopter Service
    Where: Catalina Island
    When: May 24 2008
    Who: 6 aboard, 3 fatalities
    Why: On May 24, 2008, at 0920 Pacific daylight time, an Aerospatiale AS-350-D helicopter, N67GE, operated by Island Express Helicopters, Inc., impacted terrain while landing at Two Harbors, Avalon, located on Santa Catalina Island, California, during a 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 135 on-demand, commercial flight. The flight departed from the Queensway Bay Heliport, Long Beach, California, at 0907. The commercial pilot, a company employee, and one passenger were killed, and three passengers were seriously injured. The helicopter was destroyed by impact damage and fire

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    Cessna: 5 Fatalities in Bolivia


    Pictured: A Cessna 172A
    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact photographer Giovanni Francisco Rodriguez Bravo

    What: Bolivian Cessna 172 RG
    Where: “Agropecuaria Arco Iris” airstrip, north of Montero, Santa Cruz, Bolivia
    When: May 11, 2008
    Who: 5 fatalities
    Why: While en route, the plane impacted a tree with its left’s wing and then the ground, where a fire ensued. The accident site was about 1,150 meters from an unlit runway of “Agropecuaria Arco Iris” airstrip, north of Montero, Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The pilot and the four passengers received fatal injuries; the airplane was destroyed. The flight originated from El Tromprillo Airport, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, at about 1808.

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    Emergency Landing: Luray



    What: Piper Saratoga single engine
    Where: Near Luray Caverns Airport
    When: May 6 around 6:30 p.m
    Who: Pilot, Carroll Sanders, Jr., from West Point, and passenger Myrna Titus, of Harrisonburg, were not injured in the landing.
    Why: Engine trouble

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  • Emergency landing on water


    Emergency landing on water. No details. View at your own risk. We assume no sunbathers or fish were harmed while filming.

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    Crash: Biplane Crash



    What: 78-year-old Gypsy Moth biplane
    Where: Perthshire England
    When: 11:55 May 5
    Who: 2 men. Minor Injuries
    Why: Loss of power due to mechanical failure. Plane anded on its nose in a field of oilseed rape

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  • Emergency Landing: Fla Gov. Charlie Crist



    What: Florida State Plane
    Where: Tallahassee
    When: Tues May 6
    Who: Gov. Charlie Crist
    Why: The Plane’s autopilot, yaw damp and pitch trim malfunctioned in the first 45 minutes of Crist’s flight from Tallahassee. The yaw damp is part of the autopilot system that helps stabilizes the tail, and the pitch trim the craft’s up and down movement.

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    Emergency Landing: U.S. Airways flight 2360



    What: U.S. Airways flight 2360
    Where: Blue Grass Airport
    When: 9:20 a.m. May 6, 2008
    Who: The number of passengers was not disclosed.
    Why: flaps of the plane weren’t working properly.

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  • Crash: National Airways Corporation



    What: National Airways Corporation
    Where: Rand Airport
    When: 26 April 2008
    Who: pilot Ms Kekana, 21 and flight-tracker Peter-John Winterbottom, 29
    Why: pilot hit an airplane-shed, lost control over the helicopter and crashed it onto the runway. The plane, which had just refuelled, burst into flames.

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    Emergency Landing: Ryanair Holdings Boeing



    What: Ryanair HoldingsBoeing 737 passenger plane
    Where: Brno in the Czech Republic
    When: Saturday May 3
    Who: 150 passengers and crew
    Why: Bird sucked into one of its jet engines

    No one injured except the bird.

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    Is Justice Done?

    It has been officially determined that helicoptor pilot Philip Heney’s death in a helicoptor crash is due to negligence by Skytech Aviation, who allowed the work of unlicensed mechanics to go unsupervised.

    The accident happened hours after Skytech Aviation released the Robinson R22 after extensive maintenance.

    John Horrell and licensed aircraft maintenance engineer Ronald Potts were found guilty of manslaughter of Heney, and injury of his passenger by failing to inspect the maintenance work. Each were fined and sentenced to 300 hours’ community service. (Potts $10,000; Horrell $25,000).

    Compensation will be divided between the injury victim and the grieving family.

    Heney’s widow, who wanted a prison sentence for Potts and Horrell, is disappointed in the verdict.

    Although loss of main rotor control of R22 helicopters have been a known factor since before April 2, 1996 when the National Transportation Safety Board published a special investigation report, in this case, investigators concluded the R22 crashed because its tail-rotor drive shaft had been assembled incorrectly during maintenance by unlicensed mechanics whose work Horrell and Potts failed to properly inspect.

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    Emergency landing: Jet Blue



    What: Jet Blue
    Where: FORT MYERS, Fla
    When: May 3, 2008
    Who: 83 Passengers
    Why: non-working wing flaps.

    The airport has a long runway and the plane landed safely and without complications.

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  • Kenya Airways A Year Later

    A year after Kenya Airways Douala, Cameroon crash, Kenya Airways is again being forced to defend its air safety record. On that flight, all passengers on board died. Kenya Airways other major crash was January in 2000 a plane with 169 passengers crash-landed into the sea on take-off.

    Kenya Airways has had 135 incidents between January and March of this year. Incidents include “passengers falling sick on the plane, a tear on the carpet or even a bird flying into the plane.”

    The Airline’s IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) was renewed in October 2007 and is valid for a period of two years. Out of 193 African carriers, 20 are certified.

    The probe of the Douala, Cameroon crash is ongoing.

    The video below is of last year’s crash.

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    Emergency landing: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan



    What: Helicopter emergency landing
    Where: Indore Airport
    When: 1 am May 2
    Who: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan
    Why: “Pilot smelled something burning. He immediately returned to Indore airport where he made an emergency landing”

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    Emergency Landing: Aer Arann



    What: Aer Arann flight 231
    Where: Shannon Airport
    When: 29th April 2008 just after ten o’clock
    Who: 30 Passengers
    Why: Undisclosed technical

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    Suit settles at $13 million

    Heirs of six people killed in a March 26, 2005 Penn State plane crash recovered $13 million in civil damages although a judge ruled that they cannot sue the plane’s manufacturer in federal court in Pennsylvania on the basis that Pilatus had minimal ties to Pennsylvania and could not be sued in the district.

    Their private plane spiraled downward and crashed miles from University Park Airport.The NTSA board concluded the flight failed to maintain enough speed to avoid stalling.

    Two Providence, R.I. victims were pilot Jeffrey Jacober; his wife, Karen; their 15-year-old son, Eric; Gregg Weingeroff, 49; his wife, Dawn, 42; and their 10-year-old son, Leland.

    The Penn State lacrosse team helped fund an annual scholarship named for the Jacober family.

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  • Crash: Southern Sudan (details)



    What: Beechcraft 1900 South Sudan Air Connection
    Where: Wau to Juba when the pilot sought permission for an emergency landing in Rumbek 400km (250 miles) west of Juba
    When: Friday, 2 May 2008
    Who: 23 dead including Dominic Dim Deng, (His widow claims it was an assasination.)
    Why: engine trouble

    src: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7380412.stm

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    Losing a Helicoptor

    How much idiocy does it take to lose a million dollar copter?

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  • Flight 93 Memorial


    Families of four victims who died on hijacked U.A Flight 93 in 2001 held a news conference in Pittsburgh.

    They are past ready to commence work on the Shanksville memorial. The memorial is to commemorate where the hijacked airliner crashed on Sept. 11– a memorial to the only one of four hijacked planes that the passengers prevented from crashing into a building.

    There have been objections that the shape of the planned memorial is reminiscent of the islamic hijackers.

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    Emergency Landing: Sioux Falls



    What: Delta flight 5052 Comair
    Where: Sioux Falls
    When: APRIL 29, 2008
    Who: 23 passengers
    Why: leaking hydraulic fluid for the landing gear.

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    RAF Emergency Landing



    What: British Royal Air Force fighter jet
    Where: Pease Air National Guard base
    When: April 30, 2008 noon
    Why: Electrical Problem
    Deb Cram photo

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    Emergency Landing: Corpus Christi



    What: A T-1 military plane
    Where: Corpus Christi International Airport
    When: Wednesday morning.11:22 a.m., April 30, 2008
    Who: 3 uninjured
    Why: Protocol. The plane hit a bird and protocol requires landing at the nearest airstrip,

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