The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the fatal crash of an emergency medical service (EMS) helicopter near Georgetown, SC on Sept. 25.
The Eurocopter AS-350 B2 (N417AE) helicopter EMS (HEMS) crashed at about 11:30 p.m. ET during a positioning flight after dropping off a patient in Charleston about two hours earlier. All three people on board—the pilot, flight nurse and paramedic—were killed. It was the first fatal HEMS accident in 2009.
NTSB Investigator Todd Gunther was designated Investigator-in-Charge and is leading the accident probe. NTSB Board Member Robert Sumwalt served as principal spokesman during the on-scene investigation.
The helicopter was owned and operated by Omniflight. In a statement, the company confirmed that the AS-350 took off from Charleston around 11 p.m. Friday and was headed to Conway, a city about 50 miles north of Georgetown. Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen says the pilot last radioed air traffic control at 11:05 p.m., saying the crew was about four miles from an airport near Charleston and had it in sight.
A thunderstorm moved through the area shortly before the crash, according to the National Weather Service. Authorities have not said if weather conditions contributed to the accident.
Federal safety investigators found no indication that the medical helicopter malfunctioned before crashing. Sumwalt said all major portions of the aircraft were accounted for, and that none of those parts showed anything was wrong before the crash. The engine seemed to have been working at the time of impact and the recovered tail rotor showed no signs it failed, Sumwalt said.
“If there had been damage, it might indicate that it had frozen up in flight,” he said. “But at this point, it is completely free-moving. So it would indicate that it was turning as it should have been at the time of the crash,” he told reporters on the scene.
The helicopter went down about 20 to 30 feet off a logging road in the midst of some pine trees in a sparsely populated area. The crash left a 3-foot crater in the soft ground.
An examination of the site indicates the helicopter may have landed nose down and inverted then burst into flames. There is no cockpit voice or flight data recorder on board as it is not currently required.
Sumwalt said the helicopter had flown between two intense thunderstorms and it was raining when it crashed. He could not say if the conditions were a factor. “We will certainly be looking at weather as it may have related to this accident,” he said. “But we’re looking at a lot of factors.”
The wreckage was moved to a facility for further inspection, and investigators will as always go over maintenance records and pilot training records.
“Omniflight is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of its crewmembers and wishes to express its deepest regrets and sincerest condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives,” the company said.
This was the second crash of an Omniflight-owned and operated helicopter this year in South Carolina. On July 2, a Carolina Lifecare helicopter, a Eurocopter AS 350 B2 (N53963) was damaged when it struck steel poles adjacent to the helipad at Loris Community Hospital Heliport. No one was hurt in that incident.
According to the pilot’s written statement, the purpose of the flight was to pick up a patient at 5SC5 for transport. The pilot initiated an approach to the helipad, to the west, into the wind. As the helicopter approached the helipad, the clinicians were calling clear of obstructions, such as trees and light poles. About five feet above the helipad, the helicopter shuttered and vibrated. The pilot continued the landing and performed an emergency engine shutdown.
A FAA inspector subsequently interviewed the pilot and clinicians. The FAA inspector stated that although all three persons had been to the heliport before, they simply forgot about the short steel poles aligned adjacent to the helipad. Just prior to landing, the tailrotor struck a steel pole, and the helicopter came to rest on the helipad.
According to the operator’s vice president of clinical services, all clinicians are trained with the pilots in Air Medical Resource Management (AMRAM). Through that training, the clinicians are taught to point out obstacles and hazards to flight.
Examination of the helicopter by the FAA inspector revealed damage to the tailboom, tailrotor, tailrotor gearbox, tailrotor drive shaft, main rotor, and horizontal stabilizer.
The NTSB recently urged the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to impose tighter control of emergency helicopter operators citing last year’s record number of fatalities. There were nine accidents between December 2007 and October 2008, killing 35 people.
The Safety Board drafted and sent a multitude of new recommendations to the FAA and the HEMS industry that would require better flight training and additional safety equipment for such high-risk operations.
The 19 recommendations cover various safety concerns, including pilot training; safety management systems (SMS) to reduce risk; collection and analysis of flight, weather, and safety data; flight data monitoring; development of a low altitude airspace infrastructure; and the use of dual pilots, autopilots, and night vision imaging systems (NVIS).
Last February, the NTSB conducted a four-day public hearing to examine the safety issues concerning the industry. The forum, which included testimony by expert witnesses representing HEMS operators, trade associations, helicopter and avionics manufactures, and hospitals, explored the increasingly competitive environment of the HEMS industry and provided a more complete understanding of why this industry has grown rapidly in recent years.
On September 24, an Air Methods Eurocopter AS 350 B3 (N103LN) experienced a loss of tail rotor authority and landed hard on the hospital landing pad, St Mary’s Helistop, Tucson, AZ.
The pilot, flight nurse, medic, and patient were not injured. The helicopter was substantially damaged. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed.
The pilot reported to a Safety Board investigator that during the final phase of the landing the helicopter was about five feet over the landing pad at St Mary’s Hospital, when it started to yaw left in an uncommanded fashion. The pilot countered the yaw with right antitorque pedal, which had no effect. He then rapidly lowered the collective, landed hard, and the helicopter came to rest facing the opposite direction.
The pilot reported that the winds were from the west at 2-3 knots, and the helicopter was landing to the west.