ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 77359
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| Date: | Wednesday 5 February 1986 |
| Time: | 14:35 |
| Type: |  Hughes 369HM |
| Owner/operator: | Skyline Helicopters Ltd |
| Registration: | G-HSKY |
| MSN: | 49-0036M |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Tudeley, near Tonbridge Wells, Kent -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Passenger |
| Departure airport: | Ticehurst, Kent |
| Wycombe Air Park, Booker (EGTB) | |
| Investigating agency: | AAIB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
Hughes 369HM G-HSKY was written off (damaged beyond repair) on 5 February 1986 when it collided with Bell 47 G-AXKO. According to a contemporary newspaper report ("Irish Independent - Thursday 6 February 1986)
"Helicopters crash
Five people escaped serious injury in two separate helicopter accidents yesterday in Britain. Two helicopters clipped each other 1,500 feet above a Kent hop field and came down near Tonbridge. The pilots and a passenger walked away with minor cuts and shock.
In the other incident, two people escaped unhurt after their civilian helicopter crashed into a field at Rusyford, near the busy A 689 in Durham, after suffering engine failure".
On the afternoon of 5 February 1986 two helicopters were flying over Tudeley, near Tonbridge Wells, Kent, but, unfortunately, neither was aware of the fact until it was too late.
Bell 47 G-AXKO had taken off from Redhill Airfield and flown in an easterly direction on a navigation training exercise. Hughes 369 had taken off from Ticehurst and flown in a north-westerly direction. Both were flying at about 1,500 feet. It was these trajectories and that height that brought the two helicopters into close proximity over Tudeley.
The pilots of the two helicopters only became aware of the other when a collision between them was imminent. The Bell banked to port and the Hughes banked to starboard. But this was not enough to prevent their main rotor blades coming into contact.
The pilot of the Bell, fearing that a fuel tank may have been ruptured, turned off the fuel, cut the engine, turned into wind and made an auto-rotational landing in a field. The pilot of the Hughes also elected to make a make an emergency landing. However he, unfortunately, had selected for that what he realised, as he got lower and closer to it, was a hop field, in which the hops were growing on aerial wires. Presumably feeling that he had no chance of making a landing in another field, he descended into the hop field. Whilst the wires initially cushioned the Hughes' descent, subsequently those cut through and detached the fin and tail rotor assembly, causing it to turn through a semicircle before coming into contact with the ground.
Neither the pilot of the Bell nor the pilot and passenger of the Hughes were injured in the incident. Of the two helicopters, the Bell was the least damaged. It had lost a seven inch section from the outboard end of a main rotor blade and suffered some ancilliary damage. The Hughes lost more than twice as much of a main rotor blade - some sixteen inches of its outboard end - as well as the damage to and partial loss of its tail boom.
Evidently the Bell was repaired and flew again. Its registration is current. It would seem that the same cannot be said for the Hughes. Its registration was cancelled by the CAA on 15 August 1988.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
1. AAIB: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5422f57f40f0b613460005d3/Bell_47G4_G-AXKO_and_Hughes_500-369HM_G-HSKY_03-86.pdf
2. Irish Independent - Thursday 06 February 1986
3. http://www.griffin-helicopters.co.uk/accidentdetails.aspx?accidentkey=14515
4. https://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=17865.0
5. https://planelogger.com/Aircraft/Registration/G-HSKY/1016185
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudeley
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 07-Sep-2010 14:30 | ASN Archive | |
| 23-Feb-2015 19:35 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Date, Time, Aircraft type, Registration, Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 04-Aug-2022 20:52 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Location, Source, Narrative, Category] |
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