Wirestrike

The aircraft had been brought to Cheepie by the owner, who was attending a "fly-in". It was lent to the pilot so that he could carry out circuits. The first take-off was to the north, and about three circuits were completed, with landings into the south, before the pilot decided to make the final landing into the north. On final approach, the aircraft struck telephone wires, nosed over and landed inverted. The wires were about six metres above ground level and the pilot had not been aware of their existence before the accident.

The helicopter was flying at 40' above ground level to enable the cameraman to film a vehicle. The crew heard a loud bang and the pilot suspected an engine failure so he commenced an autorotation. However, he quickly found that the engine responded normally to power changes but not knowing what had caused the noise, he decided to land on suitable terrain just ahead. After they had exited the helicopter, the cameraman reported to the pilot that he saw a wire just prior to hearing the noise. Inspection of the machine confirmed that it had suffered a wirestrike. The task required a high degree of attention on the movements of the vehicle in order to position the helicopter as required by the cameraman. The pilot did not have a low flying approval and his supervisor had instructed him not to descend below 100 feet above ground level, however he complied with the cameraman's request to fly as low as possible. The person occupying the left seat was not trained as an observer for this type of operation. The supporting poles for the wire struck by the helicopter were widely spaced and one was obscured by a stand of trees.

The helicopter was heading in a westerly direction following takeoff from the pilot's property. The track was to take the aircraft directly over Mount Gayndah so the pilot decided to track to the south of the mountain to provide better terrain clearance. When the helicopter was abeam the mountain, at about 500 feet above ground level, it struck two power lines suspended between a pole on top of the mountain and a pole 1100 metres to the south in the foothills. The pilot was unaware the aircraft had struck the wires, but immediately lowered the collective and turned the aircraft towards the only available cleared area. Approaching the area it became obvious to the pilot that the aircraft would not clear trees on the approach path and he increased the collective. The helicopter cleared the trees and turned right through 180 degrees before touching down in a level attitude while travelling rearward. The landing skids collapsed and the aircraft slewed to the right before coming to rest. The two 90 tonne breaking strain wires had been broken when they were struck by the main rotor blades of the helicopter. The wires then severed the tail rotor drive shaft, a substantial portion of one tail rotor blade and almost severed the tail boom just in front of the vertical stabilisers.

The helicopter was engaged in an inspection of the oil pipeline between Jackson and St George. The inspection involved landing at various points along the pipeline to allow the technicians to check the pipeline. As the aircraft took off after an inspection stop the front seat passenger warned the pilot about the position of a power line. The pilot attempted to take avoiding action but the aircraft struck the power line. Control of the aircraft was lost and it struck the ground in a nose low attitude and rolled onto its right side. A section of the helicopter's transmission was torn from the aircraft and struck the front seat passenger. During the day the flight had been delayed by problems with the inspection schedule and aircraft fuelling. While waiting in the aircraft for the technicians to complete their task, the pilot was involved in flight planning the next stage length to St George in order to arrive there before last light. The pilot reported that he had seen the power line during the previous landing sequence but had forgotten about its presence on takeoff.

Circumstances:

The pilot had completed the first leg of a 300 kilometre flight and was positioning the glider so that he could take a photograph of some silos. During the process the main landing gear was released. The pilot leant forward to pull on the landing gear retract column and was afflicted by a painful spasm of the stomach muscle. The pain persisted so the pilot decided to make an outlanding in a large wheat field. The pilot saw a power line near the western end of the paddock but decided to land in the paddock since it was otherwise suitable and he had sufficient height to fly over the wire. However, the glider encountered sink on final approach and collided with the wire. The wire struck the canopy of the glider and arrested its forward motion before the wire broke. The glider then fell to the ground.

Significant Factors:

The following factors were considered relevant to the development of the accident:

1. The pilot suffered an inflight incapacitation which necessitated an outlanding.
2. The glider encountered an increased sink rate on final approach.
3. The pilot was unable to avoid a collision with a power line.

Just after lift off, the pilot initiated a climbing left turn and the helicopter struck a powerline about 120 metres from the take-off point. Control of the helicopter was lost, it impacted the ground and rolled inverted. The occupants were able to evacuate the wreckage before it was destroyed by fire. The pilot was not aware of the existence of the powerline and did not see it during a pre-take off check of the DEPARTURE path. The nearest support pole indicating the existence of the powerline was surrounded by trees and the mottled background afforded a poor contrast for the detection of the wires.

The helicopter was being used to film a tourist promotion advertisement. The film to be taken involved horse riders on a trail ride, along a ridgeline, backlit by the late afternoon sun. A ground survey of the area had been completed about ten weeks earlier by the pilot and production film crew. Before commencing the filming the film crew completed another ground survey of the area and also an aerial survey in the helicopter. To facilitate the filming a wooden platform was fitted to the landing skids to carry the cameraman and his equipment. The filming runs were flown in a north-westerly direction parallel to the main power line running through the area. Initially the runs were carried out to the east of the power line but subsequently runs were completed to the west of the line. All runs were flown at heights varying between 10 feet and 100 feet agl. During the last filming run the skids struck the two cables of a spur which ran from the main power line at an angle of 92 degrees. The helicopter pitched nose down and struck the ground in a near vertical attitude. On impact the landing skids, platform and cameraman were thrown clear of the main wreckage. Fire broke out immediately and only the pilot survived the combined effects of impact and fire.

The wreckage was completely burnt out. The spur line was strung across a gully over which the helicopter had been flying on the filming runs. The distance between the main line and the first pole on the spur line was 529 m and the line was struck at a point 45 ft agl. Because of the dull grey-brown appearance of the countryside no contrast was provided for the spur line. The filming runs were being made into the late afternoon sun and the pilot and film crew were unaware of the presence of the spur line.

Circumstances:

The cameraman was filming a car from the right rear side of the helicopter which had the door removed. The car was travelling north-west at about 60 km per hour along a quiet country road through very open terrain. The helicopter flew at about 30 feet above the ground and about 100 metres from the left rear of the car. During the first filming run the pilot noticed a school bus driving north towards a "T" intersection through which the car would pass. He decided to avoid flying low over the bus and to remain well clear of a house just beyond the intersection. While distracted by the moving bus he veered from the planned flight path and pulled up over a powerline which followed the road used by the bus. The top strand of the powerline passed just over the front of the left landing skid, slid back to the cross tube, and began to drag the helicopter to the ground. While the pilot counteracted the inflight effects of being snagged by the powerline, the main rotor severed the tail boom, shortly before the helicopter impacted the ground. On impact the fuselage and cabin broke up, the fuel tank split, and the left landing gear separated but there was no fire. The pilot was experienced in the filming role and was familiar with the area. A strong, gusty, northerly wind caused mechanical turbulence, but conditions were suitable for filming.

Significant Factors:

The following factors were considered relevant to the development of the accident:

1. The pilot was distracted by a moving school bus.

2. The pilot was on a filming task involving low level operations.

3. The pilot misjudged his altitude and clearance from the wire.

Recommendations:

The cameraman was wearing a sturdy "Parachute Australia" harness anchored to an approved, custom-built, airframe bracket. All restraints held but difficulty was experienced releasing the harness catches after the accident. The harness undoubtedly saved the cameraman from worse injury. The pilot believes that this harness and attachment system surpassed the average standard of similar equipment commonly used. It is recommended that the CAA gives consideration to formalizing a standard for crewman harnesses and their attachments to airframes.

After landing, the pilot was taxying the aircraft along a marked taxyway between two hangars. Several aircraft were parked in the vicinity, and the pilot taxied at a slightly higher level than normal in order to reduce the effects of downwash. He suddenly noted cables just above eye level, and banked steeply to the left in an effort to avoid a collision. However, the main rotor blades struck and severed the cables, which were a pair of disused Telecom lines strung between the hangars, and both blades then struck the ground. The cables were not marked, and at the point where they crossed the taxyway they were 6.6 metres above the ground.

Before he commenced spraying operations in the particular paddock, the pilot had been reminded of the presence of power lines in the area. There was also a group of trees in the paddock, and the pilot sprayed the clear area first, passing over the power lines on at least two occasions. He then advised the property owner by radio that he would spray in the vicinity of the trees "freehand", before resuming normal spraying runs. On the first pass near the trees, the aircraft struck the power lines. The cockpit to fin cable deflector failed and one power line struck the fin about 50 centimetres from the top. The resulting loads caused the rear fuselage to fail, and the entire empennage separated from the aircraft, which dived to the ground and came to rest inverted. The pilot was able to recall that he had the power lines in sight as he lowered the nose to pass under them. It was likely that he misjudged the height of the tail of the aircraft relative to the cockpit with the aircraft in a descending attitude. The injuries suffered by the pilot were made more severe by virtue of the fact that he was not wearing a helmet, and because the seat belt buckle had failed. It was determined that the seat belts fitted to the aircraft were not of a type approved for agricultural operations, but it was not established when or why these particular belts had been installed.