A Japanese search and rescue helicopter crashed in Gunma prefecture, Japan, on August 10th.
The Bell 412EP helicopter was carrying nine people when it crashed into the central mountains in Nakanojo.
All nine people aboard were killed in the crash.
The cause of crash is being investigated.
Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance. I’ve said this too many times to count.
Here’s a question: The event below was a maintenance ferry flight. Every time I hear about a post maintenance ferry flight that crashed, I wonder how that maintenance was performed, and what they forgot to do. Maybe they performed maintenance perfectly—I don’t know. It’s just what strikes my mind when that ferry flight goes down. What did that maintenance crew miss? It’s too much like having a brake failure accident while bringing the family car home from the brake shop. But this accident was PRE-inspection. So maybe it is like having the brakes fail on the way to the brake shop…
On January 19, 2014, at 12:20 , a PT. Intan Angkasa Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain, PK-IWT, flying from from Sentani to Tual crashed on approach to Dumatubun Airport, Maluku, Indonesia. The pilot and three passengers were fatally injured and the airplane was destroyed.
Some reports say it was hit by lightning, but most planes are designed not to catch fire when struck by lightning; careful lightning protection has been engineered into the aircraft. The current tends to travel through the conductive aluminum exterior skin and off an extremity like a wing tip. Additional shielding protects components from haywire side effects called “lightning indirect effects” and bursting into flames is not one of those effects, except in the fuel system, where even a spark is lethal.
So, again, I question maintenance, and the integrity of the fuel system. Was the aluminum skin around the fuel system thick enough to withstand a lighting strike?
Or perhaps it was something else entirely. The flight was described as being pounded by rain and fierce winds (they had just refueled in a thunderstorm)…and the wing fell off before the plane crashed. So was it the gale force winds that caused the wing to come off? Inquiring minds want to know. As always, the investigation is key to finding out why the wing came off and the plane crashed.
Those aboard were a pilot, a technician and two airline employees.
Finnair flight AY-73 had to return and make an emergency landing in Helsinki, Finland, on September 22nd.
The Airbus A330-300 plane took off for Tokyo Narita Airport, Japan, but had to turn back due to an engine control problem.
The plane landed back safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
Updated
An Aerocon Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner en route from the Teniente Jorge Henrich Arauz Airport developed a problem as it caught fire upon landing at 4 p.m. at Riberalta Airport.
Three officials of the Governorate of Beni were aboard.
The Bolivian aircraft came to rest wheels up and was consumed by the fire.
Of the sixteen passengers and two crew, eight aboard sustained fatal injuries. The pilot and copilot survived but are in grave condition. Riberalta Hospital had previously reported eight dead and six wounded. The dead were significantly burned and will have to be identified through DNA.
The rainfall was heavy as the plane landed, and may have exacerbated the pilot’s difficulty.
Eight of the injured were taken to the hospital Riberalta while two took him to the clinic December 4. While the pilots were evacuated to the city of Guayaramerín and then transferred to Santa Cruz.
Weather about the time of the accident (16:00 LT / 20:00 Z):
SLRI 032100Z 19005KT 3000 -RA BKN004 FEW020CB OVC070 24/24 Q1009
SLRI 031900Z 15008KT 5000 VCSH BKN015 FEW020CB BKN200 28/23 Q1010
Injured
1.- Oscar Adrés Tacata Sossa
2.- Alejandra Azad Lazo
3.- Leslie Pérez Gil
4.- Zenón Peréz Ramírez
5.- Jenny Gutiérrez Farah
6.- Cecilia Tapia Salinas ( copiloto)
7.- Kevin Roca Alpire ( Piloto)
8.- Jorge Ernesto Morán Cruz
9.- Jackeline Ruiz Suárez
10.- Luis Alberto Suárez Velarde
Deceased
1.- Fernando Chacón
2.- Daniel Ishita Guarena
3.- Herlan Rodríguez
4.- Rober Suárez Vargas
5.- Shirley Ojopi Carrillo
6.- Maria Georgia Saucedo
7.- Rosio Álvarez Azad (menor de seis años)
8.- Rodrigo Molina Peñaloza
On Sept 14, 2013, an Agusta Westland AW119 Koala en route from Chinggis Khaan International Airport in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to Myakinino in Krasnogorsk, Moscow went missing near Tver Oblast. The last conversation between the pilot and ATC took place at 13:14 when the plane was flying over Staritskogo in heavy rain with low visibility. There are conflicting reports that the helicopter landed at a lumberjack festival with a number of people aboard, and that the commander of the aircraft was 30-year-old helicopter champion of Europe and Russia, Margarita Afanaskin was flying the helicopter to a Yakhroma airfield when the helicopter went missing. This has not been confirmed.
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.
What: Sita Air Dornier 228-202 en route from Kathmandu-Tribhuvan Airport to Lukla
Where: 500 Meters from airport
When: Sept 28, 2012
Who: 19 fatalities
Why: After takeoff, the pilot hit a vulture. The pilot attempted to return to the airport. (The vulture strike is unconfirmed.)
Villagers could not assist because of the fire. Firefighters had difficulty reaching the area on the banks of Manohara River in Thimi, just a few kilometers east of Kathmandu.
Four passenger and three crew were from Nepal. Five were Chinese, and seven were British. the remains were taken to the morgue at TU Teaching Hospital, Maharajgunj in Maharajgunj.
The crew who died in the crash were pilot Bijay Tandukar, co-pilot Takesingh Thapa and air-hostess Ruja Shakya.
The passengers were identified were Kumar Marshyangdi Magar (Nepal Army), D Rai, Yangchay Tamang and LN Sherpa. One Britain was identified as Eagle Raymond.
