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| Date: | Sunday 15 January 2012 |
| Time: | 14:23 |
| Type: |  PZL-Swidnik SW-4 Puszczyk |
| Owner/operator: | PZL-Swidnik |
| Registration: | SP-SSW |
| MSN: | 600401 |
| Year of manufacture: | 2010 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 242 hours |
| Engine model: | Rolls-Royce 250 C20R |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 3 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Fairbanks International Airport - PAFA, AK -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.) |
| Nature: | Test |
| Departure airport: | Fairbanks, AK (FAI) |
| Fairbanks, AK (FAI) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
During a hover test above the departure end of the runway, the flight test technician turned the hydraulics system off to simulate an in-flight hydraulic failure. During a series of prearranged hover maneuvers, the pilot began to hover the helicopter to the left, at which time, the cyclic and collective became very "stiff and ratchety," which was followed by a forward and left movement of the cyclic that the pilot was unable to physically overcome. The helicopter subsequently descended, the left skid struck the runway, and the helicopter rolled onto its left side, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage, tail boom, and main rotor drive system. A postaccident examination revealed no evidence of any preimpact mechanical anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable Cause: A loss of control during a simulated hydraulic emergency, which resulted in an inadvertent dynamic rollover from the which the pilot could not recover.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
NTSB
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 16-Jan-2012 05:51 | gerard57 | Added |
| 17-Jan-2012 15:07 | RobertMB | Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Registration, Cn, Operator, Total occupants, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Damage, Narrative, ] |
| 18-Jan-2012 00:11 | RobertMB | Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Registration, Cn, Operator, Total occupants, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Damage, Narrative, ] |
| 26-Jan-2012 14:00 | Geno | Updated [Source, Narrative, ] |
| 16-Jun-2013 14:45 | TB | Updated [Aircraft type, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, ] |
| 06-Jul-2013 15:41 | Alpine Flight | Updated [Aircraft type, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, ] |
| 21-Dec-2016 19:26 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Time, Damage, Category, Investigating agency, ] |
| 27-Nov-2017 17:52 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Operator, Other fatalities, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, ] |
| 04-Oct-2020 08:36 | harro | Updated [Operator, Other fatalities, Narrative, ] |
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