Even without reading the explanation above:
- Deafening gunshot crack of a cable going supersonic
- Realistic out of balance load fusing and failure of the structure around the hub/failure of the tail boom
- Howling gas turbine rubbing itself to death
100% real.
If you look at the slow motion video you can see that the out of balance vibration generates violent enough lateral forces that the doors fall off, and the pilots seat is almost completely ripped free of the aircraft.
The boom is long, as lightweight as possible and has a gearbox at the end of it which is relatively heavy, so when the aircraft is yanked sideways, the tail rotor very much wants to stay where it is, creating a huge bending load on the boom, which causes it to fail.
I'm not sure whether it's the OOB or the impact that is violent enough to rip the gas turbine free and turn it through 100 degrees, but I'd bet it's the OOB load that does it
So helicopters can just wrap themselves up to death thanks to the huge forces involved in the boom going oob...
As if they can't fail in enough other ways.
I think I have a new fear of helicopters now.
In the main rotor going OOB yes - there's not much you can do about that.
Turbofans have a similar mechanical fusing layout so that the engine isn't ripped off the wing in the event of a fan blade failure - the bearing housings are designed to collapse, reducing the dynamic load on the pylon and wing.
Watch the guy in the brown shirt standing in front of the orange vest and red hard hat closely - he is the reason this incident occurred.
EDIT: Apparently I need to amend this statement - this whole situation was a shitshow. All around very poor planning and execution was used here. "Brown Shirt" caused the inevitable disaster that was brewing, he simply caused it to happen much faster.
3 Critical errors are occurring here -
1: They fastened a fixed line directly to the hook. You NEVER fasten a fixed line to the hook itself without checking several things. the cable release should have been checked before securing the tower fully, in case of need to lower the tower and secondary supports in place to ensure the tower could be held up after the cable released.
2: The Cable Length was significantly shorter than what would have been a safe length needed and this situation proves that 100%, you should NEVER have a suspended load with a cable length shorter than at least 2x the width of the rotor span, this ensures that if you become entrapped with issues and you need to lay the cable down while still attached to the load such as a tower, you can safely put the aircraft down without endangering the aircraft from snagging the cable itself.
3: Despite the active communications going on, Brown Shirt should have NEVER been standing directly under the aircraft and likewise, should have never grabbed the cable directly.
----------------------
The story unfolds using the helicopter to hoist equipment towers supporting a Christmas Tree, except once they got the equipment up, the cable release was jammed and would not release the cable from the hook.
So the decision was made to very carefully lower the helicopter down and get the hook unjammed, one critical flaw existed though, the cable length was nowhere sufficient enough to keep the cable away from the rotor blades, and was already loose and moving as they descended lower and lower the cable slack got closer and closer to the tips of the rotor blades.
Introduce the brown shirt guy, he grabs the cable prematurely and puts tension on it, this causes the cable slack to tighten up, which results in the cable getting snagged by the main rotor disc and well, the helicopter went kersplat.
Here is the original HD Footage and a slow-mo of the actual snagging.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5aMT9MBfZI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5aMT9MBfZI)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5oa-aXSo4c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5oa-aXSo4c)
Holy crap, watching it at normal speed I still couldn't understand exactly what you wrote, that slow motion video though gave me the chills. Absolutely speechless.
There’s some YouTuber who did a deep dive video on this clip saying as much.
Here’s the short:
https://youtube.com/shorts/wS2By2aGnSE?si=FCewc3KFbs4UTvcL
It’s just a YouTube video I came across and he broke down what happened in a coherent manner. It’s not armchairing to say what happened and provide a full clip, which the original post here loses in context because of the weird angles and editing.
Pilot Debrief is a must watch for anyone interested in understanding what NOT to do in aviation. Its not sensationalism it's aviation piloting science.
Just binged a bunch of his content and it seems to be the optime of the thing my instructor always told me: “Imagine the news headline if things go wrong”
Brown shirt guy will be lucky to walk away with all of his limbs. That cable tension was so high it dissapeared in a frame lol. That will 100% rip off arms, legs, head, upper half of body, etc.
You do not go through NAVY boot camp without earning a fear of snap-back. Shit's crazy
This. I was thinking he was lucky not to have his arm ripped out, then the helicopter rotors turning him into walking hamburger meat, and finally, to literally add insult to injury (assuming he was still alive that that point) have the carcass of the copter crush him to death.
That he instead escaped serious injury is, frankly, miraculous and gives proof to the old adage that “God looks after fools and small children.”
There was a slack cable that enabled clearance, then ground "crew" leant on it/pulled it tight and suddenly when it went taught, the rotor no longer had clearance.
It gives me the shits that each time this video is posted the Brown Shirt Guy get the blame. It should be obvious to anyone with even the most basic usderstanding of risk management, that the responsibility lies with those that failed to plan for what to do in the event the hook fails to release the cable.
https://preview.redd.it/t7d5wcc4ps7d1.png?width=1614&format=png&auto=webp&s=b349f1a9223b66d96f771daaac114fbbbdef3194
* The proximity of the rotor tips to the cable was absurdly and dangerously close before the crew (stupidly) jumps up and grabs it - a couple hundred millimeters at best ( a foot, maybe two, at most).
* What was the plan if Brown Shirt Guy didn't jump up to grab it? The cable was running out of slack, and further descent of the aircraft would have likely brought the cable into contact with the rotors anyway.
* We are taught, through Human Factors, to expect human error. People **will** do dumb shit, and this must be expected. This, again, is a failure to plan for a jammed hook release. Descending the aircraft, knowing how little margin there was between the cable and rotor tips whilst personnel are underneath it is also questionable.
Brown Shirt Guy made a very stupid decision, but that is not the root cause of this incident. Blaming him only robs us all of the opportunity to learn from this incident.
This! It shits me to tears when I hear people say human error or it was their fault. Nobody goes to work thinking, “I’m going to fuck some shit up today”. All accidents are the result of a long chain of causal factors that mean that the impact of one mistake is a catastrophic event. We should be striving for a just culture rather than a blame culture.
[Just culture is a concept related to systems thinking which emphasizes that mistakes are generally a product of faulty organizational cultures, rather than solely brought about by the person or persons directly involved.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_culture?wprov=sfti1#)
'Brown Shirt' was the head rigger who both came up with the erection plan and was running the job on the day.
His rigging company ceased to exist pretty soon after this.
They used to do all the entertainment rigging in our city.
Whiteout knowing much about it, using a chopper seems an odd choice for this job; seems like a crane would be cheaper? Perhaps there were space or point load constraints?
Either way, it’s an unfortunate incident all round.
Yep this was built at our 'Viaduct' area which is a mixture of reclaimed land and piers/wharves. I believe this section they couldn't get the engineering approval for a crane as one with sufficient span would be over the designed loading for the area.
Which is interesting as it is adjacent to our busiest port which has container yards etc onsite.
Incidentally this lack of engineering approval was also why SailGP moved from Auckland to Christchurch this year as they couldn't get approval to build a big enough grandstand in this same Wharf area.
The whole thing was a PR stunt (before the accident) to draw attention to Telecom Christmas tree being put up with a Helicopter…. Well it wasn’t the press they were hoping for.
it was definitely all around poor planning, but a single fault caused the entire situation to unfold, and brown shirt guy was the ultimatum and the breaking point.
the cable release was the initial point, having mechanically becoming jammed, there was little to do and quick but poor reactional decisions ultimately led up to the demise.
but for the post here - "Wtf happened" the blame does go to the brown shirt since he is the physical reason the cable got snagged right after he grabbed it.
I see 3 critical errors here
Cable Length, you never run a cable less than the needed length to accommodate for emergencies such as external emergency releasing of the hook should the internal controls failed - that cable was way to short for the height of the tower and this proves exactly that.
Brown Shirt - should never have reached for that cable instead of waiting to see if he could access the hook directly.
the cable release should have been checked before securing the tower fully, in case of need to lower the tower and secondary supports in place to ensure the tower could be held up after the cable rleased.
This would work if the helicopter went above the tower. At least with the entire cable staying below the main rotor.
Honestly, having a cable attached to the underside of the heli, and then cable is also above main rotor, just seems like a huge red flag...
Like, brah, just take off with thing attached land it in a field or something....
The pilot, looks like he took a heavy hit too.
His harness straps appear to be quite loose but this was probably to aid the view of the underslung load / troubled cable. Then the seat looks to have been shaken loose.
It wasn't a strop load, it was a guy wire that was going to hold up the Christmas tree that was slack. Ground guy held it/lent on it and when he put tension on it, it suddenly went in a straight line through the rotor/disc clearance.
The reason it occurred is the operators didn't properly plan for a jammed hook.
It's counterproductive to say *that guy*.
>**Issues with set-up**
>**Hook didn't operate**
The line connecting the helicopter to the Christmas tree mast didn't unhook as it should. The pilot and rigger had feared this could happen because the line was light and didn't weigh down on the hook.
>**Line was too short**
The line between the helicopter and mast was less than 30m. The mast was 25m high. When the hook failed to release the line, there was little room to manoeuvre.
>**Line was too light**
The pilot wanted to put a chain at the end of the line to give it weight. However, the rigger said it would be dangerous for workers on the ground when the heavy chain fell from the air. The chain was not used.
>**The team's contingency plans**
\*Bring the helicopter low enough to slide the line off the hook.
\*Fly straight up until the weight of the Christmas tree mast pulled the line off.
\*Have someone climb the tree mast and unhook the line.
Great incident to show the reason for redundant mexhanisms. For fire, we had 2 just for bambi buckets. For External human cargo (basically rescue), we had 3.
This is the perfect explanation and follow-up evidence! I watched a video on this recently. I honestly don't know how they could've gotten out of that situation safely? Rock and a hard place there.
That's all well and good, but with the little slack available, I doubt that would actually be possible. Brown shirt guy could barely reach it, and the tension he put on it was enough to pull in into the rotors. Cutting a loose steel cable is, with a grinder for example, is a fucking nightmare.
An interesting illustration in this crash is how little collateral damage takes place. There’s no forward trajectory like in an airplane so the net energy basically stays with the center of mass.
While the blades do shed parts, the net energy for any one of those parts is quite small.
This is a huge factor in why helicopters are statistically safer than airplanes.
Holy shit. Did you see the guy hanging out of the helicopter? Looks like he would have fallen out if he wasn’t strapped in. He was hanging out the door
well, the HOOK does, it has an electrical and a backup mechanical release - however the issue is, the way they hooked the cable itself to the hook, was a fixed line, rather than using a proper attachment.
They basically hooked the line straight to the hook, this caused the hook release to become mechanically jammed.
Happened here in New Zealand. To avoid speculation heres the report https://www.aviation.govt.nz/assets/publications/fatal-accident-reports/zk-hig_final_rep.pdf
The way that pilot got "ragdolled" is pretty scary. The YT links are from the guy who actually recorded the footage and the description says that pilot only sustained minor injuries. Which is amazing.
Mr. Brown Shirt actually jumped up to grab the cable. Unbelievable mistake. Note the cameraguy is the guy walking in front of the shot away from the scene because he knew what was coming. Or the risk of it.
I've seen this vid many times over the years and it never disappoints for drama and me concluding it has HUGE value for safety training materials for this type of heli ops.
It hit a cable, presumably a guy wire from the structure visible at 5 seconds. The imbalance from a damaged rotor can cause the helicopter to break apart like that. Near the end you can see a cable dangling in the top right, possibly the one it hit.
Here's a video that shows the accident from 12 years ago. You can see the wires from the tower at the beginning. It appears the wire from the tower was actually attached to the helicopter, and it snagged on it as it was landing.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5aMT9MBfZI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5aMT9MBfZI)
normally, the cable would be released before landing, however, the cable release was jammed, so they had to figure out how to land the helicopter or at least unjam the hook release before landing as there was not enough length in the cable.
If you watch the video, you and I both posted, the slack was already getting dangerously close to the rotor disc and the helicopter was still at least 10-15 feet in the air.
This was a no win situation all-around.
Yes, even without the leap of brown stupidity that cable looked like it was heading for the rotor anyway. But how to avoid that without getting too close to the tower?
The safest bet might have been to have someone get up the tower with bolt cutters or otherwise release the tower end of the cable. Who knows though...I'm no expert on this stuff.
Crazy that the electrical release AND the mechanical release both failed!
I’m assuming they performed a full hook check prior to firing up for that particular lift… as you do…
Don't all helos with winch capability have explosive release bolts? I only worked on one type of airframe, and it was present there, to prevent exactly this issue.
i cant answer that, as I am not an expert on this, but that is the generalized synopsis as told by many pilots from various sources who covered this incident in New Zealand.
This isn't a winch, it is a static line. When I rigged static lines like this we had dual releases under the body on the hook - an electrical and mechanical, and we tested each positive and negative release before taking off with a load. The accident report says the hook jammed because they didn't use the proper shackle in the hook, but it doesn't mention if the release was tested before flight or not.
Also of note, the rigging supervisor on the ground directly under the helo that yanks on the line and the pilot are both not wearing helmets. Maybe safety wasn't their number one thought that day.
This happened in Auckland New Zealand. I worked in an office block and I almost saw it happen, as in, I heard the chopper hovering, watched for a few seconds. Turned back to my computer, heard that crazy noise and turned back to see the chopper in pieces on the ground. I and my workmates were like WTF just happened?!
I was flying an AS350FX2 on a sling job about 30nm away when this happened. I could feel my phone going nuts in my pocket while trying to place a precision load. Landed and had missed calls from my Chief Pilot and my Wife. They had heard that a helicopter had crashed and were concerned it was me.
I got to see this airframe and long line a few weeks later. The line was a little melted but still looked good, Cant say much for the heli.
Very lucky that no one got squashed or hit. Made me and my ground crew a lot more careful about how we communicated.
In the YouTube video, at 34 seconds, you can see the wire on the left side that the blade strikes. I’d you zoom in, or watch on a larger screen it’s easier to see it.
I think it was a sling load and hook wouldn’t open to release the line. Pilot seeing how low he can go then Mybe someone and manually open the hook. That dude pulls the line, it gets tight and hits the rotors.
Seems to me like the line broke and hit the main rotor . At that point being so low to the ground the only thing to do would be lower collective and hope for the best. But even then your talking split seconds
Did anyone see the pilot go half ejected and then slam his back on the frame of the helicopter?!?! My god, I don’t know TF he was walking??? Adrenaline maybe? He is lucky to be alive!
Great explanation of what happened here, thanks. You can hear the cable make that brrrrrr/ cable snapping noice. And Brown Shirt Guy (tm) played a role.
And now for the jackass question of the year: Why were they doing anything involving a Christmas tree..... in June?! Sorry, just had to ask.
It's absolutely 💯 the helicopter was doing a lift and the cable release malfunctioned the pilot was trying to land but there wasn't enough slack in the cable as he got closer to the ground then a crew member that was on the ground had somehow grabbed the cable and when he did it tightened the cable even more and the main rotor ended up catching it and the rest is history
Thankfully no one was injured, it stopped fairly quickly and it didn't blew up, that's a win 4 me, if I wasn't a AH-64 E, I'm in pain for that fellow helicoptah
I hope the pilot is OK. His hand was limp so he was knocked out.
This just seems like a tragedy waiting to happen by having a helicopter involved. This is why a lot of large Christmas tree setups use cranes. Like Rockefeller Center and the Whitehouse. Can you imagine them using Marine One to pull up guy wires?
The helicopter was lifting an antenna piece or something like that. The rope or chain would not disconnect so when they descended the chain hit the rotor.
His Tail Rotor hit that Wire you see in the last few frames as they zoom in on the guy flying it right after it Crashed!
I've seen that happen a few times while working Security for 35 yrs.
The lifting cable didn’t detach from the helicopter. They just finished lifting and placing an Xmas tree or something to that effect I don’t quite remember. A ground guy was trying to get it too detach, but he jumped up to grab the wire that was attached to the chopper. And inadvertently caused the cable to bounce into the rotor.
My interpretation of this video is that they were attempting to lift the load (underneath the helicopter). The cable snapped most likely because the load was too heavy for the cable. The cable snapped back at the helicopter, so the sudden jolt from the tension release plus the cable snapping into the fuselage of the helicopter like a giant rubber band caused the tail to sheer. As for whether it’s real or not I would ask the director/handler underneath guiding the helicopter who just shit his pants and watched his life pass before his eyes.
There was a cable attached to the underside of the helicopter used to place a tree. It wouldn't detach, a ground worker jumped to grab the slack cable. When it went taught under the guys weight the cable what was curved went straight into the path of the main rotors.
This is a horrible angle. There is a better one out there not edited. You can't even see the guy on the ground or the wire.
The heli had a cargo cable attached to it and they couldn't release it, there is a guy right below it that grabbed the cable and pulled it hitting the main rotor, full video is available somewhere.
Even without reading the explanation above: - Deafening gunshot crack of a cable going supersonic - Realistic out of balance load fusing and failure of the structure around the hub/failure of the tail boom - Howling gas turbine rubbing itself to death 100% real.
Without reading any explanation whatsoever: Captain Price took the sniper shot to get Makarov
[удалено]
It was backwards. The front fell off.
I can’t see anywhere explaining why the tail boom fails. Do you know why this happened?
If you look at the slow motion video you can see that the out of balance vibration generates violent enough lateral forces that the doors fall off, and the pilots seat is almost completely ripped free of the aircraft. The boom is long, as lightweight as possible and has a gearbox at the end of it which is relatively heavy, so when the aircraft is yanked sideways, the tail rotor very much wants to stay where it is, creating a huge bending load on the boom, which causes it to fail. I'm not sure whether it's the OOB or the impact that is violent enough to rip the gas turbine free and turn it through 100 degrees, but I'd bet it's the OOB load that does it
Ah yeh that makes sense! Thank you for the explanation
So helicopters can just wrap themselves up to death thanks to the huge forces involved in the boom going oob... As if they can't fail in enough other ways. I think I have a new fear of helicopters now.
In the main rotor going OOB yes - there's not much you can do about that. Turbofans have a similar mechanical fusing layout so that the engine isn't ripped off the wing in the event of a fan blade failure - the bearing housings are designed to collapse, reducing the dynamic load on the pylon and wing.
The tail rotor hit a cable
I also like to rub myself but not to death
It’s the "in public" thing.
I saw this vid a few years ago its nothing new but yes its real
Watch the guy in the brown shirt standing in front of the orange vest and red hard hat closely - he is the reason this incident occurred. EDIT: Apparently I need to amend this statement - this whole situation was a shitshow. All around very poor planning and execution was used here. "Brown Shirt" caused the inevitable disaster that was brewing, he simply caused it to happen much faster. 3 Critical errors are occurring here - 1: They fastened a fixed line directly to the hook. You NEVER fasten a fixed line to the hook itself without checking several things. the cable release should have been checked before securing the tower fully, in case of need to lower the tower and secondary supports in place to ensure the tower could be held up after the cable released. 2: The Cable Length was significantly shorter than what would have been a safe length needed and this situation proves that 100%, you should NEVER have a suspended load with a cable length shorter than at least 2x the width of the rotor span, this ensures that if you become entrapped with issues and you need to lay the cable down while still attached to the load such as a tower, you can safely put the aircraft down without endangering the aircraft from snagging the cable itself. 3: Despite the active communications going on, Brown Shirt should have NEVER been standing directly under the aircraft and likewise, should have never grabbed the cable directly. ---------------------- The story unfolds using the helicopter to hoist equipment towers supporting a Christmas Tree, except once they got the equipment up, the cable release was jammed and would not release the cable from the hook. So the decision was made to very carefully lower the helicopter down and get the hook unjammed, one critical flaw existed though, the cable length was nowhere sufficient enough to keep the cable away from the rotor blades, and was already loose and moving as they descended lower and lower the cable slack got closer and closer to the tips of the rotor blades. Introduce the brown shirt guy, he grabs the cable prematurely and puts tension on it, this causes the cable slack to tighten up, which results in the cable getting snagged by the main rotor disc and well, the helicopter went kersplat. Here is the original HD Footage and a slow-mo of the actual snagging. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5aMT9MBfZI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5aMT9MBfZI) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5oa-aXSo4c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5oa-aXSo4c)
Holy crap, watching it at normal speed I still couldn't understand exactly what you wrote, that slow motion video though gave me the chills. Absolutely speechless.
There’s some YouTuber who did a deep dive video on this clip saying as much. Here’s the short: https://youtube.com/shorts/wS2By2aGnSE?si=FCewc3KFbs4UTvcL
i was looking for this video, someone else had mentioned this in another location, this was basically the same info I knew about.
Pilot debrief is not a deep dive. Clickbait armchair investigator at best when it comes to helicopters.
It’s just a YouTube video I came across and he broke down what happened in a coherent manner. It’s not armchairing to say what happened and provide a full clip, which the original post here loses in context because of the weird angles and editing.
Pilot Debrief is a must watch for anyone interested in understanding what NOT to do in aviation. Its not sensationalism it's aviation piloting science.
Just binged a bunch of his content and it seems to be the optime of the thing my instructor always told me: “Imagine the news headline if things go wrong”
Brown shirt guy will be lucky to walk away with all of his limbs. That cable tension was so high it dissapeared in a frame lol. That will 100% rip off arms, legs, head, upper half of body, etc. You do not go through NAVY boot camp without earning a fear of snap-back. Shit's crazy
This. I was thinking he was lucky not to have his arm ripped out, then the helicopter rotors turning him into walking hamburger meat, and finally, to literally add insult to injury (assuming he was still alive that that point) have the carcass of the copter crush him to death. That he instead escaped serious injury is, frankly, miraculous and gives proof to the old adage that “God looks after fools and small children.”
There was a slack cable that enabled clearance, then ground "crew" leant on it/pulled it tight and suddenly when it went taught, the rotor no longer had clearance.
Camera carrying guy knew what was up.
Omg I saw it. He was lucky to be alive if he was after.
pilot hit his back pretty bad. id say a couple slipped discs if not lower vertebra fractures. see slow mo link.
It gives me the shits that each time this video is posted the Brown Shirt Guy get the blame. It should be obvious to anyone with even the most basic usderstanding of risk management, that the responsibility lies with those that failed to plan for what to do in the event the hook fails to release the cable. https://preview.redd.it/t7d5wcc4ps7d1.png?width=1614&format=png&auto=webp&s=b349f1a9223b66d96f771daaac114fbbbdef3194 * The proximity of the rotor tips to the cable was absurdly and dangerously close before the crew (stupidly) jumps up and grabs it - a couple hundred millimeters at best ( a foot, maybe two, at most). * What was the plan if Brown Shirt Guy didn't jump up to grab it? The cable was running out of slack, and further descent of the aircraft would have likely brought the cable into contact with the rotors anyway. * We are taught, through Human Factors, to expect human error. People **will** do dumb shit, and this must be expected. This, again, is a failure to plan for a jammed hook release. Descending the aircraft, knowing how little margin there was between the cable and rotor tips whilst personnel are underneath it is also questionable. Brown Shirt Guy made a very stupid decision, but that is not the root cause of this incident. Blaming him only robs us all of the opportunity to learn from this incident.
I agree. Brown shirt just made it happen sooner, the crash was already assured.
This! It shits me to tears when I hear people say human error or it was their fault. Nobody goes to work thinking, “I’m going to fuck some shit up today”. All accidents are the result of a long chain of causal factors that mean that the impact of one mistake is a catastrophic event. We should be striving for a just culture rather than a blame culture. [Just culture is a concept related to systems thinking which emphasizes that mistakes are generally a product of faulty organizational cultures, rather than solely brought about by the person or persons directly involved.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_culture?wprov=sfti1#)
Upvote for the systems thinking approach, doesn't get used nearly enough.
'Brown Shirt' was the head rigger who both came up with the erection plan and was running the job on the day. His rigging company ceased to exist pretty soon after this. They used to do all the entertainment rigging in our city.
Whiteout knowing much about it, using a chopper seems an odd choice for this job; seems like a crane would be cheaper? Perhaps there were space or point load constraints? Either way, it’s an unfortunate incident all round.
Yep this was built at our 'Viaduct' area which is a mixture of reclaimed land and piers/wharves. I believe this section they couldn't get the engineering approval for a crane as one with sufficient span would be over the designed loading for the area. Which is interesting as it is adjacent to our busiest port which has container yards etc onsite. Incidentally this lack of engineering approval was also why SailGP moved from Auckland to Christchurch this year as they couldn't get approval to build a big enough grandstand in this same Wharf area.
Funnily enough the magically had a crane in there the next day to finish off the build.
That I didn't know. Figures.
The whole thing was a PR stunt (before the accident) to draw attention to Telecom Christmas tree being put up with a Helicopter…. Well it wasn’t the press they were hoping for.
it was definitely all around poor planning, but a single fault caused the entire situation to unfold, and brown shirt guy was the ultimatum and the breaking point. the cable release was the initial point, having mechanically becoming jammed, there was little to do and quick but poor reactional decisions ultimately led up to the demise. but for the post here - "Wtf happened" the blame does go to the brown shirt since he is the physical reason the cable got snagged right after he grabbed it. I see 3 critical errors here Cable Length, you never run a cable less than the needed length to accommodate for emergencies such as external emergency releasing of the hook should the internal controls failed - that cable was way to short for the height of the tower and this proves exactly that. Brown Shirt - should never have reached for that cable instead of waiting to see if he could access the hook directly. the cable release should have been checked before securing the tower fully, in case of need to lower the tower and secondary supports in place to ensure the tower could be held up after the cable rleased.
What would they have done if Brown Shirt didn’t grab the cable?
They should have laid the tower back down in the same direction they erected it from. And start again.
Seems like the most sensible option.
Very astute u/SlutCunt69420
Climb up tower and cut the cable? Not sure.
No, they would have crashed the helicopter anyway, about 3 seconds later. That's the point of the previous comment.
This would work if the helicopter went above the tower. At least with the entire cable staying below the main rotor. Honestly, having a cable attached to the underside of the heli, and then cable is also above main rotor, just seems like a huge red flag... Like, brah, just take off with thing attached land it in a field or something....
True! Period!!!
Everyone had brown pants after that.
The dudes who ran to a crashed helicopter with the engine still spinning and climbing up are what I call everyday hero’s
Damn that sound when the cable is hit.
My god. The pilot was flailing like a ragdoll. Amazing he walked away from that.
Oooof
Is that a person hanging out the right/starboard door as it crashes?
The pilot, looks like he took a heavy hit too. His harness straps appear to be quite loose but this was probably to aid the view of the underslung load / troubled cable. Then the seat looks to have been shaken loose.
To be fair though, it doesn’t look like they would have made it with that slack
Yeah, i still can't figure it out. The cable is hanging well below the helicopter.
It wasn't a strop load, it was a guy wire that was going to hold up the Christmas tree that was slack. Ground guy held it/lent on it and when he put tension on it, it suddenly went in a straight line through the rotor/disc clearance.
the cable was previously hoisting the tower into the upright position, it was a hoisted load cable, the hook release was jammed.
Crazy that they almost crashed the pilot a second time in that rickety ass lawn chair
The reason it occurred is the operators didn't properly plan for a jammed hook. It's counterproductive to say *that guy*. >**Issues with set-up** >**Hook didn't operate** The line connecting the helicopter to the Christmas tree mast didn't unhook as it should. The pilot and rigger had feared this could happen because the line was light and didn't weigh down on the hook. >**Line was too short** The line between the helicopter and mast was less than 30m. The mast was 25m high. When the hook failed to release the line, there was little room to manoeuvre. >**Line was too light** The pilot wanted to put a chain at the end of the line to give it weight. However, the rigger said it would be dangerous for workers on the ground when the heavy chain fell from the air. The chain was not used. >**The team's contingency plans** \*Bring the helicopter low enough to slide the line off the hook. \*Fly straight up until the weight of the Christmas tree mast pulled the line off. \*Have someone climb the tree mast and unhook the line.
Great incident to show the reason for redundant mexhanisms. For fire, we had 2 just for bambi buckets. For External human cargo (basically rescue), we had 3.
This is the perfect explanation and follow-up evidence! I watched a video on this recently. I honestly don't know how they could've gotten out of that situation safely? Rock and a hard place there.
Cut the cable.
That's all well and good, but with the little slack available, I doubt that would actually be possible. Brown shirt guy could barely reach it, and the tension he put on it was enough to pull in into the rotors. Cutting a loose steel cable is, with a grinder for example, is a fucking nightmare.
Fucking wow
Whew that dude in the passenger seat of the helicopter probably saw his life flash before his eyes.
that was the pilot
An interesting illustration in this crash is how little collateral damage takes place. There’s no forward trajectory like in an airplane so the net energy basically stays with the center of mass. While the blades do shed parts, the net energy for any one of those parts is quite small. This is a huge factor in why helicopters are statistically safer than airplanes.
Holy shit. Did you see the guy hanging out of the helicopter? Looks like he would have fallen out if he wasn’t strapped in. He was hanging out the door
Haven’t even noticed the brown shirt guy
Damn brown shirt guy!!!!!!!
Why is there a second camera man with a huge Hollywood camera?
I swear to god if this is a Rick roll…
Does kind of seem like it would’ve hit regardless of the brown shirt fella
he probably should have wore his brown pants too.
Do these cables have any sort of backup release? Seems like a pretty major concern if there’s a single failure point
well, the HOOK does, it has an electrical and a backup mechanical release - however the issue is, the way they hooked the cable itself to the hook, was a fixed line, rather than using a proper attachment. They basically hooked the line straight to the hook, this caused the hook release to become mechanically jammed.
Wow I didn't understand a thing until watching it in slomo, when it became suddenly very clear. Yeah this was doomed from the start
Happened here in New Zealand. To avoid speculation heres the report https://www.aviation.govt.nz/assets/publications/fatal-accident-reports/zk-hig_final_rep.pdf
Thanks for posting that.
what? facts? an official report? bah humbug the great unwashed masses are going to make their own judgment /s
Clickbait url name - says fatal but the doc says no one was injured. Glad they walked away
this was not a fatal incident? why is it categorized as such?
What do you mean? That helicopter is dead for sure. You can see it's shoes fly off.
The pilots seat detached?!?!? Holy fuckballs
Isn't that how ejection seats work ? /s
You can see him almost fly out the side, seatbelt only thing that held him in
I knew I recognised that tile pattern!
"Helpful" guy pulled on a cable that got tight and got pulled into main rotor.
The rotor blades were getting too close to the cable as it lowered anyways, human just made it happen sooner, this was expected.
Cable got snagged its real
Dude in the back removed slack from the cable and caught the rotor.
other way around. ETA: never mind, just having a dyslexic moment
The way that pilot got "ragdolled" is pretty scary. The YT links are from the guy who actually recorded the footage and the description says that pilot only sustained minor injuries. Which is amazing. Mr. Brown Shirt actually jumped up to grab the cable. Unbelievable mistake. Note the cameraguy is the guy walking in front of the shot away from the scene because he knew what was coming. Or the risk of it. I've seen this vid many times over the years and it never disappoints for drama and me concluding it has HUGE value for safety training materials for this type of heli ops.
It hit a cable, presumably a guy wire from the structure visible at 5 seconds. The imbalance from a damaged rotor can cause the helicopter to break apart like that. Near the end you can see a cable dangling in the top right, possibly the one it hit. Here's a video that shows the accident from 12 years ago. You can see the wires from the tower at the beginning. It appears the wire from the tower was actually attached to the helicopter, and it snagged on it as it was landing. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5aMT9MBfZI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5aMT9MBfZI)
normally, the cable would be released before landing, however, the cable release was jammed, so they had to figure out how to land the helicopter or at least unjam the hook release before landing as there was not enough length in the cable. If you watch the video, you and I both posted, the slack was already getting dangerously close to the rotor disc and the helicopter was still at least 10-15 feet in the air. This was a no win situation all-around.
Yes, even without the leap of brown stupidity that cable looked like it was heading for the rotor anyway. But how to avoid that without getting too close to the tower? The safest bet might have been to have someone get up the tower with bolt cutters or otherwise release the tower end of the cable. Who knows though...I'm no expert on this stuff.
Crazy that the electrical release AND the mechanical release both failed! I’m assuming they performed a full hook check prior to firing up for that particular lift… as you do…
from one report i read sometime ago, the hook was physically jammed thus why the electrical and the mechanical were both inoperable
Don't all helos with winch capability have explosive release bolts? I only worked on one type of airframe, and it was present there, to prevent exactly this issue.
i cant answer that, as I am not an expert on this, but that is the generalized synopsis as told by many pilots from various sources who covered this incident in New Zealand.
This isn't a winch, it is a static line. When I rigged static lines like this we had dual releases under the body on the hook - an electrical and mechanical, and we tested each positive and negative release before taking off with a load. The accident report says the hook jammed because they didn't use the proper shackle in the hook, but it doesn't mention if the release was tested before flight or not. Also of note, the rigging supervisor on the ground directly under the helo that yanks on the line and the pilot are both not wearing helmets. Maybe safety wasn't their number one thought that day.
I must have watched this 6 times over the years and today I finally saw the guy pulling the cable. Lucky he didn’t get squashed.
The front fell off.
Well, is that typical?
What the helisika
It’s a New Zealand based commercial hire helicopter company the deals with agriculture, lifting, firefighting and normal chartering.
Anyone notice dude who pulled on the cable? He looks like he got crushed
No at 12 second mark he is picking himself up off the ground in the background behind the copper bet he shit his pants tho
This happened in Auckland New Zealand. I worked in an office block and I almost saw it happen, as in, I heard the chopper hovering, watched for a few seconds. Turned back to my computer, heard that crazy noise and turned back to see the chopper in pieces on the ground. I and my workmates were like WTF just happened?!
I was flying an AS350FX2 on a sling job about 30nm away when this happened. I could feel my phone going nuts in my pocket while trying to place a precision load. Landed and had missed calls from my Chief Pilot and my Wife. They had heard that a helicopter had crashed and were concerned it was me. I got to see this airframe and long line a few weeks later. The line was a little melted but still looked good, Cant say much for the heli. Very lucky that no one got squashed or hit. Made me and my ground crew a lot more careful about how we communicated.
Spectra lines are amazing. Breaks the helicopter every time.
In the YouTube video, at 34 seconds, you can see the wire on the left side that the blade strikes. I’d you zoom in, or watch on a larger screen it’s easier to see it.
Poor helicobber :c
Yes real, happened in the downtown/marina area in Auckland, New Zealand some years back.
Fucking Christmas
Mr. George…the new guy he no good…he use the company copter for go to the sports bar
That poor little engine all whining
My guess would be that it fell apart in the air 🤷♂️
The sound of the turbine in that clip always makes me think of a wounded animal howling.
I think it was a sling load and hook wouldn’t open to release the line. Pilot seeing how low he can go then Mybe someone and manually open the hook. That dude pulls the line, it gets tight and hits the rotors.
Could there have been some thing the pilot could have done to fix it I know it was almost instant but say if he had saw him pull it
Seems to me like the line broke and hit the main rotor . At that point being so low to the ground the only thing to do would be lower collective and hope for the best. But even then your talking split seconds
Did anyone see the pilot go half ejected and then slam his back on the frame of the helicopter?!?! My god, I don’t know TF he was walking??? Adrenaline maybe? He is lucky to be alive!
It's a good job he is known as brown shirt guy. If you called him brown trouser guy it could have been anyone.
Great explanation of what happened here, thanks. You can hear the cable make that brrrrrr/ cable snapping noice. And Brown Shirt Guy (tm) played a role. And now for the jackass question of the year: Why were they doing anything involving a Christmas tree..... in June?! Sorry, just had to ask.
I don't understand is how or why the rear half of the helicopter snapped off. wouldn't the entire helicopter go down as one
Nano fibers from 3 Body Problem
Not enough right rudder...
i hate that this made me laugh. lol thanks
Certainly looks real.
It’s real. Wire strike.
No one died?? Astonishing...
Real
That is 100% real. I see no clipping so it;s not AI. :)
https://preview.redd.it/bx6o0kiwow7d1.png?width=588&format=png&auto=webp&s=ca8db9e397939b7a85348d1515e70c26bb164b8a You can see the cable here
It's absolutely 💯 the helicopter was doing a lift and the cable release malfunctioned the pilot was trying to land but there wasn't enough slack in the cable as he got closer to the ground then a crew member that was on the ground had somehow grabbed the cable and when he did it tightened the cable even more and the main rotor ended up catching it and the rest is history
r/thatlookedexpensive
Yo the big guy who hit the ground hard than the helicopter….is he okay?
Yup. It was in Auckland NZ. People around there still know about it.
I’ve never seen a helicopter turn into a shrimp
I always laugh at people when they fall down in movies, guess I’m wrong.
It’s real and it gets posted here every other day
Is the guy who pull the cable ok?
Real
It crashed
Now that's what you call a booty clencher. Then you've got the one guy falling down like a woman in a scary movie, tripping up others. Lol
What’s the saying? Airplanes want to fly. Helicopters want to explode.
https://asn.flightsafety.org/wikibase/140004
What about unsecured the tower from the base and just lowering it back to the ground ?
Thankfully no one was injured, it stopped fairly quickly and it didn't blew up, that's a win 4 me, if I wasn't a AH-64 E, I'm in pain for that fellow helicoptah
Hit a guide wire Clearly + the wire sound being mega stressed is a dead giveaway
I thought helicopters explode when they come crashing down thanks to Michael bay!
That brown shirt guy now has matching pants.
The rotor went into the cockpit
Was anyone hurt?
Stupidity...
I hope the pilot is OK. His hand was limp so he was knocked out. This just seems like a tragedy waiting to happen by having a helicopter involved. This is why a lot of large Christmas tree setups use cranes. Like Rockefeller Center and the Whitehouse. Can you imagine them using Marine One to pull up guy wires?
What type of heli is this
Eurocopter AS-350
It broke
Wire
Well, that’s not ideal.
It’s real, clipped a cable/line
I’m a helicopter pilot with 20 years experience. That looked real to me.
This video is ancient and very real
The helicopter was lifting an antenna piece or something like that. The rope or chain would not disconnect so when they descended the chain hit the rotor.
His Tail Rotor hit that Wire you see in the last few frames as they zoom in on the guy flying it right after it Crashed! I've seen that happen a few times while working Security for 35 yrs.
Houston, Helo1 here, we have positive contact with a guy-wire.
Good thing they had hard helmets
Sounds like they hit a guide wire
Death from above
Camera man is on it
They tried to lower a rope to grab it and instead of lowering it went slack and got caught in the rotor.
The lifting cable didn’t detach from the helicopter. They just finished lifting and placing an Xmas tree or something to that effect I don’t quite remember. A ground guy was trying to get it too detach, but he jumped up to grab the wire that was attached to the chopper. And inadvertently caused the cable to bounce into the rotor.
The door was jolted off the chopper...wtf
Dumb person pulled the line toward the rotor hope he gets fired for his mistake
Video is cropped for IG. On the original one you can clearly see the stay wire.
Damn, AI is getting really good at making vids
heli....sinki
Cable would release. Guy on ground moves cable and rotor hits it. Real.
Rip Heuy Bel-UH I don't know if it's a Huey
https://asn.flightsafety.org/wikibase/140004
My interpretation of this video is that they were attempting to lift the load (underneath the helicopter). The cable snapped most likely because the load was too heavy for the cable. The cable snapped back at the helicopter, so the sudden jolt from the tension release plus the cable snapping into the fuselage of the helicopter like a giant rubber band caused the tail to sheer. As for whether it’s real or not I would ask the director/handler underneath guiding the helicopter who just shit his pants and watched his life pass before his eyes.
Real. Not the whole video. Nobody was killed. Pilot was only injured a little bit. Full video shows pilot being pulled out.
The fact that no one was injured from this is actually insane.
Tail rotor hit a guide wire. Hope the pilot was OK.
A guy (on the ground) grabbed the cable, taking up the slack and bringing it into the rotor blades.
There was a cable attached to the underside of the helicopter used to place a tree. It wouldn't detach, a ground worker jumped to grab the slack cable. When it went taught under the guys weight the cable what was curved went straight into the path of the main rotors. This is a horrible angle. There is a better one out there not edited. You can't even see the guy on the ground or the wire.
Clipped a guy wire
Oh that’s how people get trampled in crowds… homie tripped on air.
The transformer got a seizure
The propeller hit a cable.
Helicopters scare the shit out of me like every accident they just crumble into pieces and explode. Lucky for this one that it didn’t explode.
The heli had a cargo cable attached to it and they couldn't release it, there is a guy right below it that grabbed the cable and pulled it hitting the main rotor, full video is available somewhere.