SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The family members of two Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies killed in a helicopter crash are suing the aircraft’s engine manufacturer.
The federal lawsuit filed Thursday accuses Turbomeca of covering up a design and installation flaw in a critical engine part.
The crash last year killed 36-year-old Joseph Kievernagel and 29-year-old Kevin Blount.
Deputy Eric Henrikson was critically injured in the accident.
Six people died on Saturday after a firefighting helicopter crashed into the sea off Tenerife, one of the Spanish Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco, the emergency services said.
A helicopter crashed Saturday into the sea off the northeastern coast of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing all six people on board, the Interior Ministry said.
A fisherman reported the crash Saturday morning, about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) off the heavily wooded coast of Anaga, ministry official Jose Segura said. The cause was not immediately clear. The U.S.-built Sikorsky S-61N had been chartered by the Environment Ministry, and the pilot was one of Spain’s most experienced, he said.
Four bodies, two women and two men, have been recovered, Segura said. The bodies of pilot Joaquin Ortiz de Zarate, a descendant of 19th century Spanish novelist Benito Perez Galdos, and co-pilot Antonio Ruiz Lacasa were trapped in the main body of the aircraft at the bottom of the sea, about 700 meters (2,296 feet) below, Development Ministry official Antonio Padron said.
The tail section was recovered and towed to port at Santa Cruz de Tenerife, he said.
SOURCE: EiTB
Second Forest-Fire Crash in 2 Days Kills Ontario Pilot
A pilot from Ontario has been killed in the second fatal helicopter crash in two days during northern Alberta forest-fire duty.
In the latest crash, a Bell 206B Jet Ranger went down on Tuesday afternoon near Wabasca, northeast of Lesser Slave Lake, killing the 36-year-old pilot, who was alone in the helicopter.
The pilot from Niagara Falls was flying for the Alberta government, helping to suppress wildfires, the RCMP said on Wednesday. His name was not immediately released.
On Monday, a similar helicopter crashed near Grande Prairie, killing a fire-crew member, Darcy Moses, 20, of Valleyview, Alta. The pilot and two other people survived.
The Bell 206, hired by the province for initial attacks on forest fires, lost altitude and crashed moments after takeoff. The crew was checking for lightning strikes from a storm that passed through the area, a provincial official said.
The Transportation Safety Board is investigating both helicopter crashes as well as the unrelated crash of a light plane in northern Alberta.
Four people were hurt on Monday when a single-engine Socata 180 on a pleasure flight from the Grimshaw airport crashed in a treed area, the RCMP said.
SOURCE: CBC News
GRANDE PRAIRIE, ALTA. — One man is dead and three others are injured after a helicopter crash in northern Alberta.
RCMP say the chopper was lifting off from a forestry tower at Nose Mountain southwest of Grande Prairie on Monday evening when it ran into problems.
It crashed 100 metres away from the takeoff site.
RCMP Corporal Al Fraser says he believes the helicopter was involved in fighting forest fires that have been burning in the region.
Police say the victim who died was a 20-year-old man from Valleyview, Alta. but they haven’t released his name yet.
Three other males were taken to hospital — two were in serious condition.
Transport Canada is investigating the crash and will be at the site on Wednesday.
SOURCE: Canadian Press
They were on their way to rescue a person in distress off North Avenue Beach. But the crew of a Chicago Fire Department helicopter found themselves in trouble Friday when they had to make a hard emergency landing on the lakeshore.
The two pilots and two divers on board suffered minor injuries, but damage to the helicopter, which came to rest upside down near 3900 S. Lake Shore Dr., was extensive, Fire Department officials said.
The reason for the emergency landing is still under investigation.
The noon crash happened as the helicopter was en route to North Avenue Beach, where a man was reportedly having trouble in the water.
The pilot called in an air emergency, saying he was “experiencing some trouble keeping the helicopter airborne,” Fire Commissioner Raymond Orozco said. He managed to guide the chopper down…
SOURCE: Staff Reporter Monifa Thomas Sun-Times
Investigators on Friday identified the bodies of a Scottsdale flight instructor and her student pilot who were killed when their small plane crashed into a mountain in the West Valley.
Officials said the instructor, Ondrea M. Benner, 34, of Scottsdale, and her student, Clint A. Bergum, 21, of Michigan, were the victims. Bergum was living in Phoenix but his primary residence was in Ypsilanti, Mich.
The wreckage of the single-engine Cessna 152 was spotted Thursday afternoon by a construction worker on a mountainside above the Quintero Golf & Country Club in Peoria. No one witnessed the crash, and the instructor and student were dead when emergency crews arrived, Peoria police spokesman Mike Tellef said.
Federal Aviation Administration records indicate Benner was issued a commercial pilot’s license in September 2003. FAA records also indicate she had been issued her flight instructor license two years ago as of June 26.
The aircraft belonged to the Pan Am International Flight Academy at Deer Valley Airport in Phoenix, Tellef said.
The academy referred calls to its corporate headquarters in Florida, which was closed Friday evening.
The cause of the crash is unknown. It will be investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA.
SOURCE: Staff and Wire Reports
Army Investigators Check Site of Fatal Helicopter Crash
DOERUN, Ga. (AP) – Army investigators checked the site of a fatal military helicopter crash today, trying to determine why a special operations aircraft, equipped to navigate precisely at low altitudes and in the dark, clipped a wire on a communications tower in broad daylight and then broke apart and burned in a southwest Georgia field.
Four crewmen were killed in the yesterday’s crash of the M–47 Chinook helicopter near the small town of Doerun (DOH-run), but a fifth escaped with minor injuries and officials said he was making a speedy recovery.
All five were members of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, also known as the Night Stalkers, an elite unit that uses M-H-47 Chinooks to fly special forces commandos behind enemy lines under cover of night.
Officials said the crash occurred during a routine training flight from Savannah’s Hunter Army Airfield — home to one of the 160th’s three battalions — to Fort Rucker, Alabama, where the Army’s helicopter training school is located.
Lisa Eichhorn, a Fort Rucker spokeswoman, said Army crash investigators were on the scene today.
She said — quote — “The investigation has started in earnest. They’re … trained to do this kind of work. They’re going to do a very thorough job and they’re not putting any time constraints on it.”
Eichhorn said the Army has notified all the families of the dead soldiers and the names of the four victims should be released tomorrow morning. Army policy mandates a 24-hour delay between notification and the release of names.
SOURCE: The Associated Press
Poor Lighting Suspected in Juneau Helicopter Crash
Juneau — Poor visibility may have contributed to the crash of a sightseeing helicopter on the Mendenhall Glacier. Three passengers on board received what officials said were minor injuries in the crash Wednesday of a Coastal Helicopters Bell 206. (June 3, 2006)
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The pilot stated that the purpose of the flight was to perform a final rinse load on an avocado orchard they had been spraying that day. After finishing with the load, they began the short return flight back to the truck. The pilot maneuvered the helicopter in a shallow right turn over a steep hill with about 80-percent power. With the helicopter about 20 feet above ground level (agl), and about 5 feet above the treetops, it made an uncommanded yaw. The pilot maneuvered toward a flat area and simultaneously experienced a loss of rotor revolutions per minute (rpm). The helicopter settled into the trees on a 75-degree slope. He shut off the engine and egressed the helicopter.
The pilot further noted that the main rotor appear to cut surrounding trees, which were about 6-inch thick in diameter. He stated that helicopter had over 14 gallons of fuel on board.
GROTON, Conn. — A Learjet 35 registered to religious broadcaster Pat Robertson crashed in Long Island Sound while flying in heavy fog Friday, killing both pilots, authorities said. All three passengers escaped without serious injury.
Robertson was not aboard.
The twin-engine Learjet 35 went down a half-mile short of the runway at Groton-New London Airport. Authorities said the passengers were able to get out on their own and were pulled from the water and taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
Preliminary information showed that the plane may have hit an approach light mounted in a cove near the airport, said Christopher Cooper, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.
SOURCE: CBS13
