ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 194389
This information is added by users of ASN. Neither ASN nor the Flight Safety Foundation are responsible for the completeness or correctness of this information.
If you feel this information is incomplete or incorrect, you can submit corrected information.
| Date: | Saturday 12 January 2002 |
| Time: | 08:00 |
| Type: |  Robinson R44 Raven II |
| Owner/operator: | Private |
| Registration: | ZS-RMM |
| MSN: | 0902 |
| Year of manufacture: | 2000 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 4 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Cathedral Peak Hotel, Drakensberg, KZN -
 South Africa
|
| Phase: | Take off |
| Nature: | Passenger - Non-Scheduled/charter/Air Taxi |
| Departure airport: | Cathedral Peak Hotel (Drakensberg Mountains) |
| Bell Park Dam – Giants Castle Area | |
| Investigating agency: | CAA S.A. |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The pilot, accompanied by two passengers, departed on Friday afternoon, January 11, 2002 from Virginia airport (FAVG - Durban) to a private landing area near Bell Park dam in the Giant’s Castle Area. The duration of the flight was approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes.
The following morning, the pilot was accompanied by three passengers and departed from the pilot’s cottage at Bell Park dam to the Cathedral Peak Hotel to uplift fuel. During landing the low rotor RPM warning light illuminated momentarily, where upon the helicopter was landed. The two rear seated passengers then disembarked from the aircraft, where after it was repositioned and refuelled to capacity.
According to the pilot, prior to his departure from the heli-pad at the Cathedral Peak Hotel, he discussed the load with the Cathedral Peak pilot. (A commercial sight seeing operation was being conducted from the hotel and the helicopter used for this purpose was usually flown by a Commercial or Airline Transort Pilot). “My decision was to check the power necessary to hover with the load we had. I did this twice and both times it was maintaining a hover, pulling 22 inches (Manifold Pressure – MP). Had I not achieved this I would have left 2 passengers at the pad and returned for them. Being sufficiently confident that I had enough power I committed to a take-off. As soon as we lost the ground effect the rotor RPM started to drop, the horn came on, and the machine descended to the eventual crash site”.
Probable Cause
The aircraft’s in ground effect (IGE) hover capabilities were exceeded by approximately 147 pounds which rendered the aircraft too heavy to conduct a safe IGE hover take-off under prevailing conditions. The pilot allowed the main rotor RPM to decay below the safe minimum allowable limit (warning light & audio warning sounded) while attempting a running take-off with four adult occupants onboard. He was unable to obtain sufficient flying speed from this condition and crashed 0.2nm from the point of take-off.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
1. Copter crash survivor mourns bride
2. http://www.caa.co.za/Accidents%20and%20Incidents%20Reports/7450.pdf
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 25-Mar-2017 08:39 | Topaz | Added |
| 02-Mar-2021 16:48 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Operator, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 02-Mar-2021 16:49 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Narrative] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
The Aviation Safety Network is an exclusive service provided by:
Quick Links:
| ASN Home | Send Correction / Feedback |
| FSF Home | Disclaimer | Copyright |
| Contact Us | Privacy Policy |
| Press / Media |
CONNECT WITH US:
©2024 Flight Safety Foundation