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| Date: | Thursday 21 January 2010 |
| Time: | 20:16 LT |
| Type: |  AgustaWestland AW139 |
| Owner/operator: | INAER opf Salvamento Marítimo (SASEMAR) |
| Registration: | EC-KYR |
| MSN: | 31228 |
| Year of manufacture: | 2009 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 4 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Mediterranean Sea, 4.5 nm S Almería -
 Spain
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | Almería (LEAM) |
| Almería (LEAM) | |
| Investigating agency: | CIAIAC |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
Impacted the sea (CFIT) during the return from a night SAR winch training flight. Visual allusion lead to a misconception on aircraft altitude. Only the winch operator survived.
The following factors contributed to the accident:
1. Possible crew fatigue resulting from:
• The demands of the SAR operation.
• The excessive workload placed on the captain by assuming his own tasks and responsibilities and many of the copilot’s.
• The excessive cognitive effort made by the copilot due to a lack of SAR experience and to the effort required to understand and communicate in a foreign language.
2. Inadequate crew training in SAR operations and CRM techniques that:
• Hampered the captain’s handling of the unresolved conflict between giving the copilot more autonomy while fully confiding in his flying skills.
• Prevented the copilot from being sufficiently assertive to communicate his difficulty in staying abreast of the flight due to the captain’s unreported actions and his desire to complete the flight successfully with a captain who was very much his senior.
• Impeded the captain and copilot from identifying and managing their fatigue.
• Impeded the crew’s handling of the transition between a highly demanding activity (SAR exercises) and a routine activity (return flight).
• Resulted in the crew’s constant exposure and habituation to the LANDING GEAR and ONE FIFTY FEET audio warnings, which made these warnings ineffective in preventing the impact.
3. The definition and inappropriate use of SAR checklists not adapted to the helicopter model and to SAR operations, and which included disengaging the Flight Director.
4. The lack of regulations specific to SAR operations in Spain and the low requirements placed on the operator by the provider of the SAR service.
This report contains 17 safety recommendations for State Aviation Safety Agency (AESA), as one of the bodies designated by Spain as its civil aviation authority, for the Spanish Maritime Safety Agency (SASEMAR), the responsible of the SAR service, for INAER HELICÓPTEROS OFF-SHORE, as the SAR operator, and for the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), as the certifying authority for the emergency locator transmitter.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2010/01/21/andalucia/1264109728.html
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/superviviente/helicoptero/accidentado/Almeria/recupera/recuerda/nada/elpepuesp/20100122elpepunac_11/Tes
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/3259311/NZ-pilots-body-found-after-helicopter-crash
https://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/402948-sar-heli-down-almeria.html http://www.fomento.es/nr/rdonlyres/70dd0c48-1459-407a-9d9f-99d00819505a/97971/2010_002_a_interim_statement.pdf
http://www.fomento.gob.es/NR/rdonlyres/C6E653F5-E80D-42A8-9562-B8EB29B71E0F/113643/2010_002_A_ENG.pdf
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 22-Jan-2010 00:31 | gferran | Added |
| 22-Jan-2010 06:59 | RobertMB | Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Cn, Operator, Location, Phase, Source, Narrative, ] |
| 22-Jan-2010 07:00 | RobertMB | Updated [Aircraft type, Source, ] |
| 22-Jan-2010 07:27 | RobertMB | Updated [Aircraft type, Registration, Cn, Operator, Location, Phase, Nature, Source, Narrative, ] |
| 24-Jan-2010 15:35 | RobertMB | Updated [Source, Narrative, ] |
| 25-Jan-2010 12:13 | Anon. | Updated [Total fatalities, Source, ] |
| 27-Jan-2010 03:00 | Alpine Flight | Updated [Other fatalities, Damage, ] |
| 13-Jul-2010 00:13 | TB | Updated [Aircraft type, Location, ] |
| 04-Aug-2010 03:51 | Anon. | Updated [Source, ] |
| 24-May-2011 02:14 | Anon. | Updated [Source, Narrative, ] |
| 19-Dec-2012 04:50 | TB | Updated [Source, Narrative, ] |
| 19-Dec-2012 04:54 | TB | Updated [Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Narrative, ] |
| 03-May-2016 10:26 | Aerossurance | Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Phase, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, ] |
| 03-May-2016 10:26 | Aerossurance | Updated [Source, ] |
| 30-Apr-2017 07:38 | Aerossurance | Updated [Operator, ] |
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