Editor’s Note: Although an accident is painful for all involved, a cursory review of what accidents have occurred are both reflective and instructive. Accident reports give us unique insights into specific flights and situations that may make each of us reflect on our own operations or current flying environment. I encourage pilots, mechanics, crewmembers, and deci- sion makers to make it a habit to study the industry’s recent accident history. If they trigger a higher awareness that saves even one life or one airframe, it will have been worth the read.


records, the helicopter was manufactured in 1965. The helicopter's most recent annual inspection was completed on June 9, 2013. At the time of accident, the heli- copter had accrued approximately 3,980 total hours of operation. The helicopter was retained for fur-


ther examination.


CEN14FA122 - PRELIMINARY INJURIES: 3 FATAL On January 27, 2014, about 1118


mountain standard time, a Bell model 206L-3 helicopter, N207DS, was destroyed when it impacted a wire and terrain near Silt, Colorado. The pilot and two passengers were fatally injured. The aircraft was registered to and operated by a commercial operator, under the provi- sions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 135 as an on-demand air taxi flight. The helicopter was performing aerial sur-


veillance of power transmission lines when the accident occurred. Visual mete- orological conditions prevailed for the flight, which was not on a flight plan. The local flight originated from the Garfield County Regional Airport (RIL), Rifle, Colorado about 1045. The operator was contracted by a


local power utility to perform aerial surveil- lance of power transmission wires using an infrared camera to detect potential problem areas on the wires. The occu- pants of the helicopter consisted of the pilot, an employee of the utility company and an employee of a utility support com- pany. It was reported that the helicopter had completed one surveillance flight ear- lier in the day and landed at RIL where it was refueled before departing on the acci- dent flight. The accident occurred about 3 miles east of RIL. The power lines that were being surveyed by the helicopter at the time of the accident ran in a predomi-


IHST


nately north-south direction. Another set of power lines owned by Xcel Energy ran in a predominately east-west direction and crossed above the Holy Cross Energy power lines. Two parallel static wires ran from the top of each Xcel Energy tower to the next tower. The heli- copter struck the south static wire and subsequently impacted the ground. A wit- ness reported seeing the helicopter head- ing south just prior to the accident. According to a representative of the


utility support company, Inc., the contract with the utility company required video recording of the entire flight. During exam- ination of the wreckage, two recording devices were found and retained for fur- ther examination. One of the recording devices had a secure digital (SD) memory card installed. The SD card slot of the other recording device was empty. A sec- ond SD card was not located during the


wreckage examination. 


International Helicopter Safety Team Our Goal is to Reduce the Civil Helicopter Accident Rate by 80% by 2016


IHST SEES GRADUAL DOWNWARD TREND IN WORLDWIDE HELICOPTER ACCIDENTS


The International Helicopter Safety Team (IHST) has


gathered civil helicopter accident information from worldwide sources and is seeing a hopeful trend of improved safety. The IHST, which promotes safety and works to reduce acci- dents, was formed in 2005 to lead a government and indus- try cooperative effort to address factors that were affecting an unacceptable helicopter accident rate. The data collected by the IHST shows that from 1997


thru 2005, the average number of annual civil helicopter accidents worldwide was 570. In addition, this average was trending upward at an annual rate of 2.5 percent. Since 2006, when the IHST cooperative effort was formed, the average number of annual civil helicopter acci-


dents worldwide has been 515 and the average is trending downward at an annual rate of about 2 percent. While there is no solid data on worldwide flying hour


increases or decreases during the period since the IHST’s creation, the number of helicopters in the world is growing and the flying hours in many helicopter industries have been increasing. As a result, the IHST is fairly confident that the accident rate is declining by least as much as the accident count is declining (down 2 percent). Better access to safety methods and improved safety


awareness are helping helicopter operators reduce the num- ber of accidents and enhance safety programs, but more work needs to be done to eliminate preventable accidents.


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