Anchorage, AK, USA
N400EH
Bell 206L
Because of falling snow and low ceilings, the pilot, who did not hold an instrument rating, was intentionally flying very low over the surface of an open area of flat/glassy water in whiteout/greyout conditions. As he continued on toward his destination, he kept getting lower and lower in order to maintain visual reference with the water's surface. Eventually the helicopter's skids drug through the water, followed almost immediately by the tail rotor colliding with the water, and soon thereafter by the helicopter's airframe impacting the water's surface.
HISTORY OF FLIGHT On October 18, 2001, at 1543 Alaska daylight time, a Bell 206L helicopter, N400EH, impacted the waters of Cook Inlet about six-tenths of a mile west of the shoreline off the approach end of runway 06 at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, Anchorage, Alaska. The pilot, who held a commercial pilot's certificate, expired as a result of the accident sequence. Two passengers were fatally injured and two other passengers received serious injuries. The aircraft, which was owned and operated by Era Aviation, Inc., was on a visual flight rules (VFR) 14 CFR Part 135 on-demand charter flight. The flight was on a company-VFR flight plan. On the morning of the accident, around 0915, the subject pilot flew five individuals from the south ramp of Anchorage International Airport to Fire Island in N400EH, and then returned without passengers to the Era Helicopters facility. Around 1300, he again flew N400EH to Fire Island, and landed in a cleared area adjacent to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) navigational radio facility near Big Lake. After shutting down the aircraft, he entered the facility building, and waited for the FAA technicians to complete their work. By about 1515, the technicians were finished with their tasks at the facility, and were ready to depart the island. FAA certified audiotapes that recorded radio communications audible at the Anchorage Air Traffic Control Tower (Local Control) show that at 1531, the pilot of N400EH requested a special VRF clearance back to Anchorage International Airport with a landing at the south airpark. The tower advised the pilot to hold on the ground for a couple of minutes because there was inbound traffic to runway six left. The pilot acknowledged this transmission, and then waited on the ground until 1540 when Anchorage Tower issued him a special VFR clearance to enter the Anchorage class C airspace. That clearance included instructions to maintain one thousand one hundred feet or lower, and to proceed to the south airpark. The pilot then read back the clearance and indicated that "...we're on our way, thank you much." About two minutes and thirty seconds after the pilot indicated he was en route, the tower asked him what altitude he was at. He responded with "four hundred is at fifty feet." About 15 seconds after this transmission, Anchorage Tower directed Dynasty 212 Heavy to maintain two thousand feet and to continue to fly its present heading. At the end of that transmission, after what sounds like the click associated with the tower controller releasing his transmit button, there is what appears to be a separate sound that lasts for about five tenths of a second. That sound, which appears to be the end of a transmitted spoken word, was followed immediately with a one second-long squealing static sound that is consistent with the termination of a radio transmission overlapping the tower's transmission to Dynasty 212. After waiting for about five seconds for a response from Dynasty 212 Heavy, the tower repeated the instruction for Dynasty 212 to maintain 2,000 feet, but changed the heading to a right turn to 200 degrees. The flight crew of Dynasty 212 responded with a confirmation of the clearance, and then asked, "Did you copy aircraft going into the water?" Tower asked Dynasty 212 to "say again," and at 1543:17 Dynasty 212 responded with "Did you copy, it sounded like Era said he was going into the water." There were no further transmissions or responses from N400EH, and approximately two minutes later both the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport Police, and the National Guard's 11th Rescue Coordination Center were notified that the helicopter had probably entered the water. The two survivors were rescued by an Air National Guard HH-60 helicopter, and were transported to Alaska Regional Hospital in Anchorage by approximately 1645. Due to weather conditions, the Fire Department rescue boats and the National Guard search helicopters were recalled at approximately 1730. During the investigation, the IIC conducted multiple interviews with the two surviving passengers. According to the passenger in the right rear seat (facing forward), the helicopter had been sitting on the landing area adjacent to the VOR facility for at least two hours before he and the other passengers boarded for the flight back to the south ramp of Anchorage International Airport. He said that the pilot had come into the facility to relax and watch TV until the FAA personnel were ready to go back to Anchorage. He said that once they were finished at the site, the pilot and all the passengers boarded the aircraft, and the pilot started the engine. After the aircraft's engine was started, it remained on the ground with the engine running for what seemed to him to be about five to ten minutes. He said that by the time the helicopter lifted off, there was a considerable amount of condensation on the inside of the side windows in the area where he was sitting. After it lifted off, the helicopter entered a hover over the landing area, and remained in that position for about one minute. At the end of that time, the pilot set it back down on the landing area, but kept the engine running. Soon after the helicopter sat back down on the landing area, this passenger saw the pilot look at the left front seat passenger and point toward the left side of the front windscreen. Immediately thereafter, the passenger in the front left seat started wiping the inside of the windscreen with his glove. The rear seat passenger believed that the pilot's pointing action had been an indication to the front seat passenger to assist in removing the condensation from the inside of the front windscreen. The rear seat passenger then heard the pilot say "Can you hear me now" over the intercom. The passenger responded that he could, but he did not hear the front seat passenger, who was the only other passenger with a headset on, respond to the pilot's question. Soon thereafter, he heard the front seat passenger ask the pilot if they were on "weather hold," to which the pilot responded, "Yes." About five seconds later, after being on the ground for what seemed to the passenger to be about two minutes, the helicopter took off a second time. After takeoff, the helicopter flew "low over the trees," on a route that was more to the north than what the passenger had expected ("toward Palmer"). Upon reaching the shoreline of Fire Island, the helicopter descended until it was "very low over the water." When the investigator-in-charge asked the passenger for an estimate of the aircraft's height above the water, he said that it was really hard to tell, but that he thought it was about 10 to 15 feet. It appeared to the passenger that as the pilot continued on, the helicopter descended lower and lower, and was eventually flying at what seemed to be about five feet above the water. At that time, he could see white chop and "a lot of spray" being created where the wind from the aircraft's main rotor was impacting the surface of the water. He said that he was "real uncomfortable" with the low altitude, and wanted to say something to the pilot, but did not because he was concerned that he would break the pilot's concentration. According to this passenger, who was looking through the right side window of the helicopter, the pilot continued on at this low altitude for a period of time, and then appeared to enter what seemed like a hover. It appeared to the passenger that the aircraft was in a hover for about a minute, and then it seemed to start moving forward again. As it appeared to start moving forward, the helicopter seemed to descend a few more feet, and then about three to five seconds after descending, the skids drug through the water. Immediately thereafter, the aircraft pulled rapidly up from the water and climbed quickly for a few seconds to an undetermined altitude. As it leveled off, the helicopter began to rock sideways, and seemed to move erratically in many different directions. It then descended for approximately five seconds and impacted the water "very hard." Soon after the bottom of the helicopter impacted the water, it began to roll to the right, and the main rotor blades started to hit the surface of the water on the right side of the aircraft. The helicopter then slowly began to sink. After exiting the cabin and coming to the surface of the water, the passenger tried to make a call for help on two cell-phones he had in his possession, but he was not successful. He then attempted to sit on a portion of the helicopter that was on the surface of the water, in order to get his personal flotation device repositioned and connected correctly before inflating it. But, since he found this exacerbated the pain from the back injury he sustained during the impact, he slid back into the water. Once he was back in the water, he made the adjustment of his flotation device and pulled the inflation lanyards. The vest then successfully inflated. Soon after inflating his vest, he realized that he could see a shoreline, which at the time he thought was Fire Island, and he started swimming in that direction. After swimming in that direction for awhile, he discovered that he was making little progress against the receding tide, so he stopped swimming and floated until being picked up by a National Guard helicopter. According to this passenger, soon after the accident helicopter departed the shoreline of Fire Island, he was no longer able to see any land or inlet shoreline. He said that the water was calm and flat, and that it was very hard to tell exactly how high above the surface they were. In addition, he said that it was snowing at the time, and that everything, including the reflection on the water, was kind of grayish white. He could not see any clearly defined horizon, and he felt there were no clear visual clues as to where they were going. Although he could not ascertain the condition of the front windscreen of the helicopter, because most of it was not in his line of sight, he reported that he had to repeatedly wipe off the side window in the passenger cabin with his glove in order to see out. According to this passenger, the helicopter did not make any sudden or unexpected rolling or pitching movements prior to the skids contacting the water. He said that although he was uncomfortable with the aircraft flying at what looked to him to be just above the surface of the water, there was otherwise nothing unusual about the movements or the flight path of the helicopter until the skids touched the water. This passenger did not see any lights come on or flash inside the helicopter, nor did he hear any horns or beepers prior to the initiation of the dragging of the skids. He said that he did not hear anything that sounded like a change in the engine or rotor rpm, and that there were no other unusual noises. According to the other surviving passenger, who was riding in the front left seat, the pilot went out to the helicopter a short time prior to the loading of the passengers, and waited there until everyone was ready to board. Soon after everyone was loaded, the pilot started the aircraft's engine, but did not lift off for what seemed to this passenger to be about 15 minutes. When the pilot did lift off, the aircraft remained in a hover directly over the landing area for approximately one minute. It appeared to the passenger that during the period of time the aircraft was hovering, the pilot was looking around the area and observing the conditions. During the time the helicopter was hovering, this passenger specifically noted that the visibility had deteriorated to the point where he could not see across the channel to Anchorage. After hovering, the pilot sat the helicopter back down on the landing area, but kept the engine running. According to the passenger, at the time the pilot put the aircraft back down, about 75% of the humidity that was on the windscreen when the passengers boarded had evaporated. He also said that most of the humidity that remained at that time was wiped of by himself and the pilot using their gloves, and that thereafter seeing out the front was not a problem. About the same time as the front window was being wiped off, the passenger asked the pilot if they were on a "weather hold," and the pilot responded with "yes." About five minutes after setting the helicopter back down, the pilot took off again, and began heading toward the northeast end of Fire Island. As it headed north, the helicopter flew low over the trees until reaching the shoreline of the island. Then, according to this passenger, after passing the shoreline, the pilot slowly descended to a point where the helicopter was "…real close to the water." When asked by the investigator-in-charge (IIC) how high above the water they were, the passenger said that it appeared that they ultimately got down to about 10 feet from the surface, but he could not tell precisely. He further stated that although he could not tell exactly how high above the water they were, it was a lot lower than he thought they should be. As the aircraft continued toward Anchorage, it got low enough that the passenger could see a white spray off the top of the water where the force of the wind from the main rotor whipped up the surface. At one point, the passenger thought the skids were going to touch the water, but they did not. Soon thereafter, the skids either entered the water or skipped a couple of times across its surface. Almost immediately after the skids contacted the water, the helicopter's nose came up, its tail appeared to hit the water, and the aircraft quickly pulled away from the surface. Then, according to this witness, the nose dipped forward, and the pilot seemed to be rapidly moving the controls "…all over the place." The helicopter then began to rotate as it descended back toward the water. During the descent, the pilot quickly transmitted over his VHF radio that they were "…going in the water." Just after the pilot made his transmission, the helicopter hit the water "very hard." About the same time as the helicopter hit, the passenger remembers seeing the main rotor blades hitting the surface of the water either in front of the aircraft or off to the right side. The next thing the passenger remembers after the impact was coming to the surface of the water. As soon as he popped up, he yanked the activation lanyards on his flotation device, which immediately inflated. Soon thereafter he noticed that one other passenger was on the surface and that they could both see the shore. He and the other passenger soon started swimming toward shore. While he was swimming, he noticed a helicopter near his position, so he stopped trying to make it to shore and waited to be pulled from the water. According to this passenger, once they left the island, there was no visible horizon, and everything was "…just all gray." He said that they passed a sand bar en route, but once past that, he could not see any land, shoreline, or any other clear visual reference. He reported that it was snowing and the water was flat, and that it was hard to tell where the water ended and the sky began. He said that he had not seen any steady or flashing lights come on inside the helicopter while they were over the water. He also did not hear any horns or beepers, nor anything that sounded like a change in rpm or any unusual rotor or engine noises. According to this passenger, the aircraft did not make any sudden or unusual rolling or pitch movements prior to the skids touching the water. He said that although he thought they were too low, he felt they were "doing fine" until the skids touched the water. He said that the aircraft might have rapidly descended a few feet just before the skids touched the water, but he did not have a clear recollection and couldn't really be sure. It appeared to him that "…the pilot just flew it into the water." PERSONNEL INFORMATION The pilot of the subject aircraft held a commercial pilot certificate, and was rated to operate helicopters and single engine airplanes. His commercial license was first issued in October of 1969, and according to the Era Pilot Experience Record that he completed in early July 2001, he had accumulated over 10
The pilot's failure to maintain clearance from the surface of an open body of water while intentionally attempting to maintain a very low altitude while in cruise flight. Factors include falling snow, low ceilings, whiteout/greyout conditions, and flat/glassy water.
Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database
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