ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 302985
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| Date: | Tuesday 9 August 2022 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Robinson R44 Raven II |
| Owner/operator: | |
| Registration: | ZS-RSO |
| MSN: | 10145 |
| Year of manufacture: | 2003 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Stone Hill Game Farm -
 South Africa
|
| Phase: | Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.) |
| Nature: | Unknown |
| Departure airport: | Stone Hill Game Farm |
| Stone Hill Game Farm | |
| Investigating agency: | CAA S.A. |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
A pilot and a passenger on-board a Robinson R44 Raven II helicopter with registration ZS-RSO took off on a game capture operation from Stone Hill Game Farm near Klerksdorp, with the intention to land back at the same game farm.
The pair were working together with a team on the ground. The flight was conducted under visual meteorological conditions (VMC) by day.
The game capture team on the ground had erected a boma. The intention was to capture five earmarked giraffes that were to be pointed out by the passenger (a game manager) on-board the aircraft.
The pilot stated that whilst flying at approximately 50 feet (ft) above ground level (AGL) as they rounded up the last giraffe into the boma, the giraffe turned and stopped, facing the helicopter. The pilot conducted a quick stop and pulled up the collective controls aggressively to gain height with th intention to hover at a safer height as the helicopter was too close to the boma ‘curtain’. The pilot, who was also trying to move away from the boma curtain as the main rotor blade downwash was preventing the ground team from closing it, encountered a decay in the main rotor revolutions per minute (RPM) which activated the low main rotor RPM warning. The pilot attempted to recover from the condition, but he was unable to as the helicopter height was too low. He then aimed for the gravel road to executive an emergency landing but collided with a barbed wire fence before the helicopter landed hard on the ground. During impact, the main rotor blades severed the tail boom. The visible damage on the main rotor blades indicated a low main rotor RPM inertia impact. The cockpit and the cabin area were severely damaged, whilst the skid gear was flattened.
The pilot complained of back pain after the accident; he was taken to the hospital in Klerksdorp where a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan was performed. He was kept in hospital for two days before he was discharged. The farm manager was not injured during the accident sequence.
Probable Cause
During a game capture operation whilst the pilot manipulated the flight controls, the main rotor RPM decayed, which resulted in the helicopter losing height and crash-landing as there was insufficient height available to recover.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
S.A. CAA
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
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