MATTHEW S. ZUCCARO LAND & LIVE AWARD For outstanding aeronautical decision-making, crew resource management, and/or coordinated actions
Capts. Steve Buhagiar and David Sidorski Pilots, Bristow Group, Houston, Texas, USA
On the afternoon of Sep. 24, 2022, Steve Buhagiar and David Sidorski were flying four passengers in a Bristow Group Leonardo AW139 to Houma, Louisiana, from an offshore oil platform. When the flight was about seven minutes from the airport, the crew heard a loud “whoof” sound and saw thick smoke coming from the overhead circuit-breaker panel. Smoke immediately filled the cockpit as the low–rotor rpm warning alarm sounded, both engines began racing, and the aircraft started a rapid climb. Buhagiar, the pilot-in-command for the flight,
fully lowered the collective as he fought to bring rpm back and maintain aircraft control. Meanwhile, Sidorski snapped the left-side door window in two and pulled half of it in and behind the seat, clearing smoke from the cabin. Buhagiar lowered the landing gear as a precaution. Te engines were at 140% torque as rotor rpm slowly returned to 100%. Even with collective full down and nose level, the aircraft was in a 1,700 ft.-per- minute climb. “We’d climbed from 3,500 to almost 7,000 ft.
Capts. Steve Buhagiar (left) and David Sidorski
in the span of a few minutes,” Buhagiar recalls. “I didn’t know how much more the aircraft could
take. We needed to reduce power. I asked David to bring engine one down to idle to see if that helped.” As Sidorski brought engine one to idle, the rpm immediately deteriorated to 80%. He rapidly brought it back, and rpm
slowly returned. During the maneuver, however, they had descended 1,000 ft. With seemingly no other option, Buhagiar tried nosing the aircraft forward to lose altitude. Te aircraft sped up to more than 186 kt., well above its maximum speed, as Buhagiar flew in a large, gradual spiral to descend. Once lined up for the runway, the crew decided to bring engine two
to idle and attempt an autorotation. Te rotor rpm immediately dropped to 67% before resuming full engine power. Now knowing the aircraft could still fly at 67% rpm, Buhagiar and Sidorski elected to descend by exchanging rpm for altitude, repeatedly throttling back the engines and immediately powering back up. Te helicopter touched down at what Buhagiar believes was about 60 kt. Both main landing gear collapsed while the aircraft skidded 800 ft. on the runway. Buhagiar and Sidorski were successful in safely landing the aircraft
“It was such an intense experience, the entire
event. There were so many times we could have died,
with only one minor injury. Later, the US National Transportation Safety Board determined the incident was caused by incorrectly routed wiring that chaffed, caught fire, and caused the upper carbon-fiber collective torque tube to melt and rotate, leaving the rotor blades in a full pitch position even when the collective was down. “Tere were so many times we could have died,” Sidorski recalls, “but neither of us locked
up. Tere’s nothing in the manual that tells you what to do in this situation. We worked together to test options, not making any sudden actions. We knew we were done if we did nothing, so we did what we could while the aircraft was still flying to get us down safely.”
but neither of us locked up. We kept flying the aircraft.” —David Sidorski
Sponsored by
56 ROTOR MARCH 2024
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