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The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has detailed a pilot’s miraculous escape after their helicopter crashed and burst into flames last month.
A Eurocopter AS350 (registration unknown), which was conducting agricultural spraying operations near Holbrook, NSW, on 3 September, hit a wire with its skids and lost control, crashing into the ground and catching fire; despite this, the pilot was able to get clear with only minor burns.
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According to the transport safety watchdog’s occurrence brief, the pilot had identified the wires in a pre-flight hazard reconnaissance and their location was programmed into the helicopter’s GPS, which was also equipped with a wire detection warning system.
“Once spraying operations had commenced, the pilot reported that they were focusing on the spray as well as the stock in the neighbouring property which was at the end of their run. This resulted in them losing sight of the already identified wires in the spraying run overshoot area,” the ATSB said.
“Shortly after the dispensing had been completed, the pilot entered the neighbouring paddock and saw the wires. However, with little time to respond, the helicopter’s skids struck a wire resulting in damage to the tail rotor.
“The helicopter then began vibrating violently and rotated to the left, entering multiple 360-degree turns before it collided with terrain, rolled onto its right side and caught fire.”
The helicopter was destroyed by the fire. In its brief, the ATSB wrote that the pilot had been distracted by other nearby concerns.
“Despite the hazard assessment and the systems in place to warn about the wires, in this occurrence the distraction of the stock in the neighbouring paddocks diverted the pilot’s attention resulting in them losing sight of the wires,” the report read.
“Research by the ATSB has shown that 63 per cent of pilots [in 180 wirestrike accidents] were aware of the position of the wire before they struck it.
“Focusing attention on non‑operational tasks or focusing on operational tasks at the wrong time can affect pilots’ hazard avoidance, detection and reaction times, and all pilots, no matter the level of experience, can get distracted.”
The ATSB in 2011 released an educational booklet, Wirestrikes involving known wires: A manageable aerial agriculture hazard (AR-2011-028), containing details of multiple accidents, lessons learned and avoidance strategies.
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