ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 309274
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| Date: | Tuesday 14 March 2023 |
| Time: | 10:00 LT |
| Type: | Bell APT70 |
| Owner/operator: | Bell Textron Inc |
| Registration: | N314AL |
| MSN: | 002 |
| Year of manufacture: | 2019 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 17 hours |
| Engine model: | Proprietary |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Mineral Wells, TX -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Test |
| Departure airport: | Mineral Wells, TX |
| Mineral Wells, TX | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
During a flight test, the unmanned aircraft's flight control computer registered a low battery voltage reading and entered an automatic land in place flight maneuver. The aircraft was hovering over a large bush at the time and the ground station operator (GSO) attempted to override the system, but the system rejected the commands. The GSO attempted to change the land in place waypoint, but the system again rejected the command. The aircraft performed its land in place maneuver and collided with the bush, which resulted in the aircraft tipping over and coming to rest inverted.
The operator reviewed the aircraft systems and found the low voltage threshold to be overly restrictive. In addition, software prevented the flight crew from overriding the land in place command and regaining control of the aircraft by changing the waypoint.
Probable Cause: The flight crew's loss of control of the unmanned aircraft due to software limitations. Contributing to the accident was the overly restrictive low voltage threshold limits.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
NTSB CEN23LA135
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 04-Apr-2024 09:50 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Time, Operator, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Source, Narrative, Category, Accident report] |
| 04-Apr-2024 09:53 | ASN | Updated [Narrative] |
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