AAIU Reports

SYNOPSIS

The helicopter had landed and shutdown earlier that afternoon on Bettystown beach where its passengers alighted. The Pilot then repositioned the helicopter to a nearby unsuitable small car park in the centre of the village of Bettystown.  While attempting to land, the main rotor of the helicopter struck a steel lamppost.  The helicopter yawed, then rolled and the main rotor disintegrated on hitting the ground.  The Pilot evacuated the helicopter, which was destroyed by an extensive post-crash fire.  Collateral damage resulted from helicopter debris hitting nearby properties and cars.  The Pilot and two bystanders suffered minor injuries.  The Emergency Services responded in a timely manner and extinguished the fire.

Synopsis

The microlight aircraft, with two occupants on board, was returning to land at a private airstrip following a short local flight. The light conditions were fading rapidly as the sun set. The aircraft struck an overhead telephone cable running alongside the boundary wall of the airstrip field, and impacted into the field some 20 metres (m) inside the wall. The two occupants were seriously injured. The aircraft was destroyed. There was no fire.

Synopsis

On landing, the aircraft bounced back into the air.  The aircraft nose then pitched down and the aircraft landed on the nose wheel.  The nose wheel detached, the fractured nose leg scraped along the runway and the aircraft slewed to the left of the runway.

SYNOPSIS

The aircraft was engaged on a private flight from Guernsey (EGJB), in the Channel Islands to Kerry Airport (EIKY) operating under visual flight rules (VFR).  The Pilot made a long straight-in approach to Runway (RWY) 26, the active runway, and completed the ‘landing check’ at 3 nautical miles (nm) on final approach.  The aircraft touched down without the landing gear extended.  When the aircraft came to a halt the Pilot turned off the fuel switch, the main switch and the alternator before evacuation.  The occupants were uninjured and there was no fire.  The landing gear warning horn failed to operate.

SYNOPSIS

On landing, the aircraft veered to the right, ground-looped and impacted a boundary fence.

SYNOPSIS

The aircraft departed Haverfordwest Airport in Wales at 16.00 hrs en-route to Taghmon in Co. Wexford.  After approximately 55 minutes flying time the engine stopped without warning.  The Pilot immediately selected the other fuel tank and attempted to re-start the engine.  With the aircraft descending through 900 ft the restart attempt was abandoned and a successful ditching was carried out.  The Pilot was not injured.  The Investigation found that the engine stopped probably due to fuel starvation relating to a fuel-vapour related problem.

SYNOPSIS

The aircraft was on approach to a private airfield in Co. Meath when it struck cables.  The aircraft climbed away and landed safely at another airfield.  The aircraft suffered minor damage and there were no injuries.

SYNOPSIS

The aircraft, which had recently commenced operation with the parachute club, suffered a temporary partial power loss at 9,000 ft as it climbed to drop its parachutists.  On the Pilot"s command, the parachutists exited the aircraft.  The engine recovered but subsequently stopped during the final approach.  This resulted in the aircraft landing short of the runway in a ploughed field and inverting.  The Pilot was taken to hospital but was later discharged.

The Investigation found that the engine stopped due to fuel exhaustion, which was caused by an inappropriate method of monitoring the fuel consumption and fuel quantity on board the aircraft.  A contributory factor was lack of operational experience with a new aircraft type. 

Two Safety Recommendations are issued; one to the Operator regarding its fuel management system and one to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regarding fuel settling post refuelling.

SYNOPSIS

The new motor glider took off from Birr Airfield (EIBR) on a check flight prior to issuance of a Permit to Fly.  There were two persons on board, the Check Pilot and the Owner. During the climb the engine suddenly stopped and subsequent attempts to restart it failed.  An attempt was made to return to the airfield but the aircraft became low on approach.  In attempting a forced landing into a field short of EIBR the aircraft struck the topmost branches of a tree and descended into a garden.  Neither occupant was injured other than minor cuts.  The Pilot candidly stated that he had misjudged the approach back to the airfield, having been distracted by the engine stoppage and the attempts to restart it. The Emergency Services attended and were warned by the crew that an unmarked ballistic parachute, an explosive rocket device, was installed on the aircraft.

Four Safety Recommendation are issued as a result of this Investigation: Three Safety Recommendation are issued; to the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and to the State of Slovenia requiring that warning placards are placed on the outside of an aircraft, when such an aircraft is equipped with a ballistic parachute system.  A fourth Safety Recommendation is issued to Pipistrel concerning the provision of information in the Flight Manual regarding the possibility of sudden engine stoppage.

SYNOPSIS

The aircraft departed from Runway (RWY) 08 at Kerry Airport (EIKY) on a flight to Luton, England (EGGW).  Shortly after take-off, the left hand windshield fractured and the crew requested a return to EIKY.  Kerry Tower cleared the aircraft to return using a procedure to establish on the Instrument Landing System (ILS) approach for RWY 26.  The aircraft initiated the procedure but then commenced a descent, in cloud, on a track approximately parallel to the ILS but 6 nautical miles (nm) south of it.  A radar controller in Shannon, who had been monitoring but not controlling the flight, intervened by phone with Kerry Tower and directed that Kerry Tower should instruct the aircraft to climb immediately. 

Contemporaneously, the aircraft’s Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) alerted the crew.  The aircraft reached a lowest height above the ground of 702 ft before commencing a climb.  Kerry Tower handed it over to a radar controller at Shannon for guidance onto the ILS but the aircraft encountered further navigational difficulties before landing.  On subsequent technical inspection, it was also found that the No. 1 engine had sustained serious foreign object damage and that an engine change was required.