ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 223244
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| Date: | Wednesday 15 August 2018 |
| Time: | 08:30 UTC |
| Type: |  Robinson R22 Beta |
| Owner/operator: | The Mondrepie Trust |
| Registration: | ZS-HBP |
| MSN: | 4331 |
| Year of manufacture: | 2008 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Thaba Thala Game Farm, Sterkstroom district, near Queenstown -
 South Africa
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Survey |
| Departure airport: | Thaba Thala Game Farm, Sterkstroom district, near Queenstown |
| Investigating agency: | CAA S.A. |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information verified through data from accident investigation authorities |
On Tuesday, 14 August 2018, a pilot flew from O.R. Tambo Aerodrome (FAOR) to Port Elizabeth Aerodrome (FAPE) to assist a game capture team to capture 75 antelope (Lechwes) on a private game reserve near Sterkstroom in the Eastern Cape province. The antelope were earmarked for a buyer in Namibia.
The pilot was collected at FAPE and was transported to a farm near Cradock where the helicopter was parked on a trailer. The game capture team then towed the helicopter to a private game reserve where they were to commence with the capture operation the next morning. The antelope were captured after being darted by a veterinarian from the helicopter, where after, a ground capture team moved in and loaded the antelope onto a capture vehicle, which in turn was offloaded at the ‘station’ where the trucks were waiting to transport the animals. Both doors of the helicopter were removed for this operation. The veterinarian was seated on the leftside of the helicopter and was secured by an additional harness which was secured to the helicopter’s safety harness; this additional harness allowed him ample movement to dart the animals. According to available
information, there were no eyewitnesses to this accident, but several members of the game capture team heard the impact and rushed to the scene where the helicopter was found lying on its left side 21 metres from a set of high-tension power lines. The pilot was seriously injured in the accident and the veterinarian succumbed to his injuries at the scene as he was found trapped underneath the main wreckage.
The accident could be attributed to an external event (third party), which could be associated with an unintentional or deliberate act by a person or persons on the ground who either fired a rifle/gun at the helicopter, whereby the projectile/bullet penetrated one of the main rotor blades.
The pilot most probably not only heard the shot being fired (if a silencer was not used) but he would have felt a vibration on the helicopter flight controls after the projectile/bullet had penetrated the blade. He could have interpreted this as a catastrophic failure of some kind and, to avoid colliding with the power lines, he most probably made an unintentional control input by yanking back on the cyclic, which resulted in the tail boom being severed by the main rotor blades; thereafter, control was lost, and the helicopter impacted the ground.
In proximity to the main wreckage was a shooting range which consisted of a boma/shooting platform; a standalone target, which was 100m from the boma; and a back stop (heap of sand), which was 200m from the boma.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
1. http://www.caa.co.za/Accidents%20and%20Incidents%20Reports/ZS-HBP.pdf
NTSB
3. http://avcom.co.za/airport2/aircraftview.php?showdetail=&Registration=ZS-HBP
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 20-Mar-2019 18:14 | Dr. John Smith | Added |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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