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| Date: | Tuesday 29 April 1975 |
| Time: | 11:28 |
| Type: |  Aérospatiale SA 319B Alouette III |
| Owner/operator: | Belgian civil protection |
| Registration: | OO-PCB |
| MSN: | 2151 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 5 / Occupants: 6 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | None |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Walem, Antwerp -
 Belgium
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | Walem fortress (Civil Protection Base) |
| Walem fortress (Civil Protection Base) | |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
On 29 April 1975 trials were held on new methods of evacuating people using a cargo swing under an Alouette III, in cooperation between the fire department of Mechelen and the Belgian Civil Protection, at the Civil Protection base at Walem fortress, north of Mechelen.
The day started around 10:55LT when the aircraft took off with 2 barrels of 200l in the netting and all the options of jettisoning the cargo-swing were tested: both electrically and manually by the pilot, and manually on the ground. This was followed by a flight with volunteers taking place in the netting, with flights taking place with an increasing number of people. The first three trails (respectively with 2, 3 and 4 volunteers taking place) went ahead without any issues.
During the final test with 5 people in the netting it went wrong. 1 minute after takeoff at around 230ft the netting came loose from the aircraft and plummeted down, landing in the garden of a property adjacent to the Walem fortress (present-day address: Antwerpsesteenweg 106). The pilot was notified by ground personal and confirmed this by saying the “elingue” light on his dashboard was on, indicating that the cargo hook had open.
The five volunteers inside the netting at the time of the accident were fatally injured. They were four members of the Mechelen fire department and one member of the Belgian Civil Protection.
The cargo hook installed on the accident helicopter was a SIREN Type A 90 B (serial number 1620, built February 1973), rated for a maximum weight of 2500 kg. It could be operated both electrically and mechanically by the pilot, the first option requiring the pilot to operate three different switches on different panels before being able to click the release switch; the second option requiring the pilot to manually pull a safety release handle. It could also be released by operating a release switch on the cargo hook itself, however this was out of reach of the occupants of the helicopter during the flight.
Cause: the cause of the accident was the hook opening mid-flight resulting in the loss of the netting, there no abnormalities found regarding the systems during tests prior/after the incident with the hook by both the Belgian CAA and Aérospatiale at Marignane, and the reason for the sudden hook opening was never determined.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
https://www.skystef.be/regi/OO-PCB2-crashreport.pdf
https://www.helispot.be/hs/documents/ongevallen/oo-pcb.pdf
https://www.skystef.be/regi/OO-PCB.htm
https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20250422_94626744
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 22 January 1978 | OO-PCB | Heliflight | 0 | Bruges, West Flanders | |
w/o |
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 14-Jun-2020 08:38 | Kev | Added |
| 14-Jun-2020 12:49 | Kev | Updated [Aircraft type, ] |
| 09-Nov-2022 07:14 | Ron Averes | Updated [Location, ] |
| 26-Apr-2025 14:10 | NY | Updated [Registration, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, Category, ] |
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