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| Date: | Saturday 5 March 1994 |
| Time: | 12:00 |
| Type: |  Hughes 269C |
| Owner/operator: | |
| Registration: | VH-UFX |
| MSN: | 470593 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | 38km E of Napier Downs, WA -
 Australia
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Passenger - Non-Scheduled/charter/Air Taxi |
| Departure airport: | Triad Mine, WA |
| Erskine Oil Depot, WA | |
| Investigating agency: | BASI |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
After flying through some heavy showers, the pilot detected a vibration in the aircraft. He knew that the main rotor abrasion tapes sometimes came loose in rain, and when he detected a performance loss, he suspected that loose tapes may have been the reason for the vibration. He decided to land to remove the tapes. With maximum power selected, the pilot could not arrest the sink rate during the approach for the run on landing, and the helicopter landed heavily and bounced. As a result of the hard landing, the main rotor blades severed the tail boom. Damage to the main rotor blades was such that it could not be determined if the blade tape had lifted prior to the accident. No other defects were discovered that could have contributed to the loss of performance.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/1994/aair/199400573/
https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/4933692/199400573.pdf
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 26 May 1988 | VH-UFX | 0 | 16km W of Meda Station, WA | |
sub | |
| 2 January 1997 | VH-UFX | 0 | Fitzroy Crossing, WA | |
sub |
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 19-Mar-2018 08:52 | Pineapple | Added |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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