Preliminary Reports
Low Fuel Leads to Falcon 10 Crash in Afghanistan
Dassault Falcon 10, Jan. 20, 2024, Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
The air ambulance-configured aircraft crashed into a snow-covered mountain in Afghanistan in January after the crew reported they were running low on fuel, according to information in a recent safety report from the Russian Interstate Aviation Committee.
The 1978 Falcon, which according to Air Safety Network preliminary information was registered to Athletic Group (RA-09011), was carrying two crew and four passengers—two medical workers and two others being transported. The crew and medical workers were injured, while the other two were killed.
The aircraft departed from U-Tapao Airport in Thailand at 1:20 p.m. local time on January 20 for the 3,895-nm journey to Zhukovsky Airport in Moscow. Preliminary information reveals that the aircraft refueled at Gaya International Airport in India and continued at 4:10 p.m. local time toward a second refueling at Tashkent International Airport in Uzbekistan. However, a deviation led to additional fuel consumption, and at about 7:05 p.m. the crew radioed that they were low on fuel. Fourteen minutes later, the crew reported one engine had flamed out; 10 minutes later the second engine had flamed out.
The crew initially hoped to make an emergency landing at Kulob Airport in Tajikistan but instead decided to make an emergency landing in the mountainous area of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and ended up colliding with the mountain slope.
Helicopter Accident Ends SWAT Team Exercises
MD Helicopters MD600N, July 16, 2024, Eagle Lake, Texas
Four members of the SWAT team of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office and the pilot of their helicopter were hospitalized after an accident officially described as a “hard landing” during nighttime training exercises. By the following morning, all had been discharged.
The flight was part of a larger exercise involving other SWAT team members at a site about 70 miles west of downtown Houston “designed to simulate real-world scenarios under the cover of darkness.”
Details of the program, which was cancelled after the accident, were not disclosed.
Seven Killed in Crash after Autopilot Malfunction Report
Pilatus PC-12/47E, July 26, 2024 Gillette, Wyoming
All seven occupants perished when the single--engine turboprop departed controlled flight at FL260 after the pilot reported an autopilot malfunction. The victims included three members of a well-known gospel music quartet, their assistant, and a family member. The pilot was the chairman of the Georgia Department of Corrections; his wife was the sixth passenger.
The flight was en route to Seattle to board a gospel-themed cruise to Alaska. The crash, near the Montana border, ignited a wildfire that eventually spread to 38 acres before being suppressed by the combined efforts of aircraft, heavy equipment, and fire engines deployed by Campbell County ground crews. Initial reports did not indicate any violent weather in the vicinity.
Final Reports
Delayed Departure Ends in Tree Strike
AgustaWestland AW109SP, Nov. 1, 2022, Nantclwyd Lodge, LLanelidan, Denbighshire, UK
The five guests departing from a private hunting lodge in North Wales weren’t ready to leave at their scheduled departure time of 16:30, some 15 minutes before sunset, but instead remained in the lodge until 17:15, just three minutes before the end of civil evening twilight. They had arrived by helicopter at 09:20 that morning, after which the 3,815-hour commercial pilot flew to the Hawarden Airfield to refuel before returning to the lodge.
Once they boarded, the pilot saw the passengers “rearranging their seatbelts after sitting down but did not visually confirm they had fastened them.” He “took his time” after engine start to reduce the helicopter’s weight by burning additional fuel and decided that visual references were adequate for a vertical departure.
The pilot lifted into a hover and moved forward and left, using the searchlight to locate the nearest trees while turning into the wind. While the initial climb seemed to go as expected, the helicopter drifted backwards 23 meters (75 feet) and the main rotor blades struck trees at an altitude of 30 to 40 feet. The helicopter crashed to the ground and rolled onto its right side, but there was no fuel spill or post-crash fire. All five passengers were injured, one seriously. “At least four” hadn’t fastened their seat belts.
Twin Otter Damaged During Antarctic Field Mission
De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, Jan. 23, 2023 Mount Lymburner field location, Antarctica
A slight lateral excursion during takeoff from a previously unprepared field site led the nose gear of the ski-and-wheel-equipped airplane to strike an ice ridge, causing damage that was not fully apparent until it returned to a more well-equipped base. The flight to deliver crew and equipment to a location at the northwest end of the Ellsworth Mountains landed uneventfully after a first pass skimming the snow with the main gear’s skis. After closer scrutiny of the ice, the pilot prepared an 800-meter (half-mile) skiway from which to take off marked by bamboo poles with flags.
During the takeoff run, the Twin Otter drifted toward the right side of the skiway. Just before rotation, the right ski sank into the snow. The pilot tried to correct the right yaw with rudder and differential thrust but felt “a large impact … on the nose ski.” After takeoff, the pilot noticed that the standby attitude indicator indicated a 40-degree bank in level flight. The primary attitude indicator also appeared misaligned, and the covers around the rudder pedals had been dislodged.
After assessing controllability, the pilot made a precautionary landing at an unmanned fuel depot with a prepared skiway about 40 nm west, where he added fuel and inspected the airplane. Damage to the nose and forward bulkhead did not impede the flight controls, so he concluded that the safest course was to proceed to a manned field station about 300 nm to the northeast whose staff included “a licensed engineer.” Following an uneventful landing, the engineer confirmed damage to the upper and lower forward bulkheads and nose skins and authorized a temporary repair to conduct a ferry flight limited to two cycles and eight flight hours.
Precise Cause of Freighter Crash Remains Undetermined
Cessna 208B, Feb. 28, 2023, Nakina, Ontario, Canada
Investigators were unable to pinpoint the specific cause of the in-flight loss of control that led the Caravan to descend into trees at high speed in a 22-degree nose-low attitude, killing both pilots. The flight was the crew’s second of the day transporting cargo between the Naina (CYQN) and Fort Hope (CYFH) Airports, both in Ontario. The investigation was hampered by the fact that the airplane’s onboard GPS tracking device failed to either record or transmit tracking data during the accident flight for reasons that likewise remain unexplained.
Search-and-rescue efforts were in turn hindered by the removal of the emergency locator transmitter for scheduled recertification on February 8, just weeks before the fatal crash. Four days passed before searchers located the wreckage 30.8 nm from CYQN on the direct track to CYFH.
The 325-hour pilot had been signed off to fly solo on revenue flights just 10 days earlier. He was not instrument-rated. Due to concern about gusty winds, the 2,570-hour base manager volunteered to accompany him as an “extra crew member,” distinct from second-in-command or training captain. He held an instrument rating but did not meet IFR flight currency requirements.
Another company aircraft that flew the same route half an hour later encountered snow showers en route, and a snow squall at CYFH shortly after their arrival reduced visibility significantly.