Preliminary Report: Passenger walks into rotor disc

Hughes 369D, Ellensburg, Wash., Sept. 8, 2007–While the helicopter was hovering on a Yakima River canyon hillside, a passenger got out, hit the rotor disc and was killed. Northwest Helicopter was on a bighorn-sheep-relocating mission for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. With the left-side doors removed, the gunner in the back left seat and the mugger in the front right seat (the pilot was in the left) were able to exit the helicopter and capture sheep. With two sheep in a net, the gunner exited the left side of the helicopter; then the right-seat passenger got out and walked into the rotor disc.