ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 34717
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| Date: | Sunday 11 January 1998 |
| Time: | 22:50 |
| Type: |  Bell 222UT |
| Owner/operator: | Air Methods Corporation |
| Registration: | N222UH |
| MSN: | 47545 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1985 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 6308 hours |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 4 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | near Sandy, UT -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Ambulance |
| Departure airport: | |
| University of Utah Medical Center Heliport, UT (UT21) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
On January 11, 1998, approximately 2250 mountain standard time, a Bell 222UT, N222UH, operated by Air Methods Corporation of Englewood, Colorado, was destroyed when it collided with mountainous terrain in Little Cottonwood Canyon, near Sandy, Utah. The airline transport rated pilot, registered nurse, emergency medical technician, and patient were fatally injured. Instrument meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed for the air medical transport flight operating under Title 14 CFR Part 135. The flight originated a few minutes before the accident.
The hospital helicopter was dispatched to transport a skier, who had been injured in an avalanche. Snow was not falling when the helicopter departed the hospital, but there were 'gusty winds and light to moderate snow' during arrival at the landing zone. The dispatcher telephoned the pilot (using a cellular phone) to advise him that hospital weather conditions had deteriorated due to a fast moving front. She said it was 'snowing really hard,' the winds were gusting to 37 knots, and visibility was less than 300 feet (she could not see a wing of the hospital on the closed circuit television monitor, and could barely distinguish the helipad). A sheriff's deputy said that the helicopter took off from the landing zone in 'blizzard conditions' and circled the landing zone, then turned north and disappeared from view. Seconds later, a deputy heard 'a slight muffled boom. . . The weather had grown steadily worse and the snow was falling very heavily.' Later, the helicopter was found where it had impacted mountainous terrain in a canyon area. Several tree tops were severed when the helicopter crashed.
Probable Cause: Flight by the pilot into known adverse weather conditions, and his failure (or inability) to maintain sufficient clearance or altitude from mountainous terrain. Related factors were: darkness, heavy snow, high winds, the pilot's perception of pressure that was induced by the conditions and events, and mountainous terrain.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
https://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20001211X09421&key=1
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 28 June 1992 | N222UH | Air Methods Corporation | 0 | Scipio, UT | |
min |
| 12 January 1998 | N222UH | Air Methods | Sandy, UT | |
w/o |
Images:
Photos: NTSB
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 24-Oct-2008 10:30 | ASN archive | Added |
| 29-Nov-2012 11:34 | TB | Updated [Location, Phase, Nature, Source, Narrative] |
| 18-Oct-2022 11:54 | Captain Adam | Updated [Operator, Destination airport, Narrative, Accident report, Photo] |
| 18-Oct-2022 11:55 | Captain Adam | Updated [Photo] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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