ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 17051
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| Date: | Friday 4 April 2008 |
| Time: | 00:03 |
| Type: |  Robinson R44 II |
| Owner/operator: | Topeka City Police |
| Registration: | N402PD |
| MSN: | 11554 |
| Year of manufacture: | 2006 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 1207 hours |
| Engine model: | Lycoming IO-540 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 3 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Washburn University, Topeka, KS -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Aerial patrol |
| Departure airport: | Topeka-Philip Billard Airport, KS (TOP/KTOP) |
| Topeka-Philip Billard Airport, KS (TOP/KTOP) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
On April 5, 2008, about 00:03 CDT (Central Daylight Time), a single-engine Robinson R44 helicopter, N402PD, was substantially damaged after impacting a light pole during a precautionary landing in a university parking lot near Topeka, Kansas. The commercial pilot and two observers were not injured. The helicopter was registered and operated by the Topeka Kansas Police Department. Night visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the Public Use flight.
The pilot reported that during a routine surveillance flight, he heard the helicopter's engine "fluctuate" slightly; he then looked at the engine gauge and saw that the engine rpm gauge was above the "normal operating limits", and the gauge [needle] was "jumping up-and-down." In order to keep the engine within operating limits, the pilot disabled the engine governor and decreased the engine rpm. The pilot also reported that as they started to return to base, they heard the engine "rev up" followed by the low rotor rpm alarm. The pilot executed an autorotation, after the rotor rpm recovered and entered the normal operating range; the pilot decided that they would perform a precautionary landing.
A parking lot security camera caught the night image of the helicopter's landing. The video shows the parking lot and helicopter lights. As the helicopter approaches the parking lot, a spark/light shower is displayed as the helicopter's main rotor blade contacts a light pole. The helicopter subsequently makes a hard landing, coming to rest on its side.
The Helicopter Unit of the police department was grounded until all investigations wered complete but it did still have a Schweizer 300 it could call upon. It is the third police helicopter crash in Topeka history. In 2000, two officers were killed in West Topeka and in the 1970s a pilot was killed in a crash near Downtown.
Just to add to the sense of fun surrounding this whole sad affair the local newspaper, The Capital-Journal, went to court in an effort to find out details of the crash that were being denied them. The newspaper filed a lawsuit in Shawnee County District Court seeking access to the flight log of the police helicopter that crashed on April 4 2008.
They had requested the log, which they contend is public information available under the Kansas Open Records Act. It was also in part material that had already been aired in a newspaper but was now being denied on the grounds that this was an "active federal investigation" by the FAA.
The names of the two pilots had been released by a City Councilwoman but the identity of the observer had not.
The Capital-Journal also requested an ‘open-records’ sight of the Kansas Highway Patrol report on the accident. That too was taking its time to appear in their hands (see link #3)
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be: A malfunctioning magneto, resulting in a high engine rpm and low rotor warning indications. A contributing factor was the impact with a light pole, during the precautionary landing.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
1. NTSB
2. FAA Registration: https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?omni=Home-N-Number&nNumberTxt=N402PD
3. https://www.cjonline.com/article/20090509/OPINION/305099803
4. https://uk.flightaware.com/resources/registration/N402PD
5. http://www.policeaviationnews.com/Acrobat/PANewsMay2008.pdf page 14
Location
Media:
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 06-Apr-2008 06:55 | Bleiente | Added |
| 07-Apr-2008 07:17 | Fusko | Updated |
| 08-Apr-2008 01:54 | Fusko | Updated |
| 02-Nov-2018 01:11 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Time, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative] |
| 16-Aug-2021 07:27 | harro | Updated [Source, Accident report] |
| 31-May-2023 04:05 | Ron Averes | Updated [[Source, Accident report]] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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