Helicopter Crash Ala

[Bizz]

My sympathy to the families of these men

this report from Bangkok post is a bit confusing

An army helicopter has been shot down or crashed in Yala province and 10 of the 13people aboard were killed, a military spokesman said on Friday.

Army spokesman Col Acra Thiproj said the crash was an accident.

"Ten people on board were killed .when the helicopter developed a technical problem and tried to land, but crashed to the ground," he said. Three others reportedly survived. The airplane is rated to carry 13 people plus equipment.

The pilot reported engine trouble and that he would have to attempt a crash landing. The UH-1H Huey hit a hillside at high speed, reports said.

The helicopter appeared to explode as it hit the ground. All those aboard were killed, including eight soliders, a police officers and a civilian.

The helicopter was on its way back to Bannang Sata military base in Yala province. It was carrying a military forensics team which was investigating the murder of a border police sergeant in an insurgent ambush.

While there was no initial indication that Islamist rebels were involved in the helicopter crash, the site of the crash was in an insurgent-infested region.

Officers said they would have to investigate the incident before ruling out ground fire as the cause of the crash.

Edited June 20, 2008 by Bizz

[thomast]

Although I didnt fly helicopters only fixed wing planes, copters have what is called auto-rotation. If they have sufficient height, more than several hundred feet above the ground, after even complete engine failure, they can do an emergegency landing in auto-rotation, where the rotor acts as a wing. It would be a heavy landing but these machines are designed with this in mind. So maybe not engine failure, unless the the pilot messed up and didnt go through the drills, (panic)?

Edited June 21, 2008 by thomast

[Carib]

All we can do is guess..................so why should we??

[cathyy]

Likely not engine failure alone; but if a rotor was damaged and the balance of the blades thrown off it would make the chopper really hard to control, if not impossible. If a control cable/wire was damaged the chopper would not have responded properly to control inputs. There are many possibilities, which could be caused by mechanical malfunction, or sabotage, or attack. I'd be interested in hearing what the investigation concludes. My experience is that they first try to blame it on improper maintenance, if that isn't possible they try to blame it on pilot error, and only if that fails do they try to blame it on aircraft mechanical/structural defect.

[geriatrickid]

aren't these helicopters long past their prime? Is it possible there may be an element of aircraft fatigue?

[Norrad]

Auto rotation does not need so much height if you have sufficient speed (article says they hit the hillside at high speed). Huey's aren't the best at auto rotation though as the only have 2 rotor blades. I think it is more down to lack of sufficient training. The Thai military is vary weary of damaging their equipment and as such, they very rarely do auto rotation practice.

[rijb]

Trying to land and hitting a hillside at high speed seems like conflicting information. I was a helicopter flight mechanic in the US Air Force. We practiced auto rotations all the time - with the engine in idle speed. We lost a transmission once and had to do it for real. You only get one chance - it can hurt a lot if you miss.