AAIU Reports

SYNOPSIS

The aircraft had been positioned at Stand 67 at Dublin Airport.  The dolly struck the left hand undercarriage door and some damage was also evident to the lower part of the LH undercarriage body housing.  The force of the impact was felt by the captain who was in the cockpit at the time of impact.  He declared the aircraft unserviceable.

SYNOPSIS

The aircraft departed Little Gransden in the UK at 0740 hours on a Visual Flight Rules (VFR) flight to Waterford Airport in Ireland. The weather en route deteriorated, however, and the pilot elected to continue under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR). The pilot failed to establish on the ILS twice at his destination in Waterford Airport. During the course of the second go around, the pilot became visual and elected to land in a suitable field, as he considered he had insufficient fuel for additional approaches. 

The pilot landed the aircraft in a small and steeply uphill field. The aircraft came to a stop in a mud heap, just short of some farm out-buildings. There was no fire. All three occupants were uninjured. 

SYNOPSIS

EI-MES was performing a demonstration in Dublin Port, in association with the Tall Ships Event which was being held in Dublin. The demonstration consisted of dropping a team of nine swimmers of the Irish Naval Service Diving Section, from the helicopter into the River Liffey. When they jumped from the moving helicopter, the  swimmers suffered varying injuries. Two of the injured swimmers were hospitalised for more than 48 hours.

Synopsis

SYNOPSIS

After a flight of one hours duration, and at about 800 feet while lining up with the runway to land, the aircraft went into an uncommanded left spiral dive from which the pilot recovered. He climbed back to 1,000 feet and, on reducing power, the aircraft again went into a left spiral dive from which he recovered. At this stage he had moved somewhat southwards away from his original intended landing area and, as he reduced power again the aircraft spiralled to the left and landed heavily in a nose down attitude in a field of barley.

This investigation was conducted by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch,UK, and the following report was originally published in AAIB Bulletin No.2/99 of February 1999.

SYNOPSIS

During take-off from a grass airstrip near Gorey, Co Wexford, the aircraft did not become airborne until near the end of the runway, where it struck a barbed wire boundary fence, breaking two wooden poles in the process. The aircraft continued to fly with a high nose-up attitude for a further 300 metres before the pilot elected to carry out an emergency landing in an adjacent field. The field, which was cultivated and planted with small saplings, had furrows running at right angles to the direction of flight. After an initial heavy impact into the field, the main undercarriage was torn off and substantial damage was caused to the underside of the aircraft, before it finally came to rest. All five persons onboard the aircraft evacuated without injury. Time of impact was 0947 hours approximately. There was no fire. 

Synopsis

The model was flying circuits at a registered aeromodel site in the Phoenix Park in Dublin.  After a take-off, which followed a normal circuit, command of the model was lost.  The model then flew off in a North-east direction.  When its fuel was exhausted, the model glided to earth, and landed on the new link taxi-way near the threshold of Runway 28 at Dublin Airport.

The report finds that the probable cause of the loss of command was the exhaustion of the receiver battery.

SYNOPSIS

On 10th. November 1997, the pilot, having completed a commercial flight earlier that morning, was requested by a member of the operators maintenance staff to carry out a local test flight on EI-BYJ, to confirm that the maximum and minimum autorotation RPM was set correctly, among other requirements.

His passenger, a qualified helicopter engineer, was on board to record various readings laid down in a document of eleven pages, entitled "Flight Test Schedule Ref. 125 Iss. 1 April 1991". The pilot and the engineer discussed the contents of this document in detail prior to take-off.

This particular flight was carried out prior to the commencement of the helicopters annual inspection, which was necessary for the renewal of its Certificate of Airworthiness (C of A). It was intended that any collective pitch control or cyclic control rigging adjustment would be carried out during this annual inspection. 

SYNOPSIS

Aircraft suffered power failure and landed in 3 metres of sea water.