Juneau, AK, USA
N207CH
AIRBUS AS350
After another company pilot returned to base due to deteriorating weather conditions en route, the instrument-rated commercial helicopter pilot flew to a remote glacier to pick up passengers. Upon departing from the glacier, the pilot encountered deteriorating visibility and flat light conditions. She decided to turn back to the departure point and land to wait for conditions to improve; however, during the turn, the helicopter impacted the featureless, snow-covered terrain and came to rest inverted. The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical anomalies that would have precluded normal operation with the helicopter, and the accident is consistent with the pilot's failure to maintain clearance from terrain while operating in poor visibility and flat light conditions, which obscured features of the terrain and resulted in a loss of visual clues regarding the helicopter's distance from the ground. The operator assigned different weather minimums to each of its pilots depending on their experience level. The accident pilot was classified at the highest experience level and was permitted to fly in conditions as low as 1/2 mile visibility, cloud ceilings 300 ft above ground level (agl), and from remote sites with the potential for white out conditions. The estimated conditions reported from the landing site shortly before the accident included 1 1/2 miles visibility with fog and ceilings about 1,500 ft agl, though previous observations indicated that fog had begun developing about an hour before the accident occurred and that conditions had continued to deteriorate since that time. Though the reported weather conditions were above the minimums specified by the company's operations manual, it is possible that the pilot felt pressure to complete the flight given that she was classified as more experienced; it is also possible that the pilot and/or operator felt pressure to conduct the flight because there were no formal procedures in place in the event that passengers were required to remain on the glacier for an extended time due to a contingency such as weather conditions that prohibited flight.
HISTORY OF FLIGHT On May 22, 2017, about 1805 Alaska daylight time, an Airbus AS350 B2 helicopter, N207CH, was substantially damaged when it collided with snow-covered mountainous terrain after departing a remote landing site on the Herbert Glacier, about 21 miles north of Juneau, Alaska. The commercial pilot and three passengers sustained minor injuries; three additional passengers were not injured. The helicopter was registered to and operated by Coastal Helicopters Inc. as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 135 on-demand air taxi flight. Degraded visual meteorological conditions were reported on the glacier at the time of the accident, and company flight following procedures were in effect for the flight, which originated from Juneau International Airport (JNU), Juneau, Alaska, at 1743. The purpose of the accident flight was to transport five cruise ship passengers who had completed a dogsledding shore excursion and one musher back to the operator's headquarters at JNU. The operator was contracted to provide helicopter transportation to and from the glacier where the dogsledding was conducted (known as "dog camp"). The accident passengers had been transported to the dog camp in the accident helicopter by another pilot. The pilot then returned to JNU, where he picked up another set of passengers to transport back to the glacier. The accident helicopter was one of a flight of two company helicopters that departed for the glacier. While en route, the pilot noted deteriorating weather conditions "moving up the glacier" that consisted of "swirling clouds." The pilot reported the conditions via radio to the operator's headquarters, then the pilots of both helicopters elected to return to JNU. Upon landing, the passengers disembarked, and the two pilots were replaced by other company pilots, who were permitted to fly in lower weather conditions; the two helicopters then departed empty to pick up the passengers on the glacier. The accident pilot stated that en route, the cloud ceilings and visibility were "really good," and she noted a "few clouds moving around" as she neared the glacier. After landing at the dog camp and boarding passengers, the other helicopter departed first, followed by the accident helicopter. The pilot reported that she took off and proceeded down the glacier; about 3/4 mile from the camp, she noted an area of fog along the intended route of flight and chose to return to the dog camp to wait for conditions to improve. She turned the helicopter toward a rocky area in order to maintain visual contact with the ground when, during the turn, the helicopter impacted snow-covered, featureless terrain and came to rest inverted. One passenger reported that he "could not see anything" as the helicopter departed "because of the thick fog." Another passenger described seeing "white everywhere" and stated that "you couldn't tell the sky from the ground." FLIGHT RECORDERS The helicopter did not carry, nor was required to carry, a crashworthy flight data recorder. At the time of the accident, the operator did not have a formal flight data monitoring program in place, nor was it required to have one. SURVIVAL ASPECTS After the helicopter impacted terrain, the passenger seated in the far-right seat of the cabin was unable to activate the buckle of the 3-point restraint system to egress from the inverted helicopter. The pilot noticed that the passenger appeared to be disoriented. The pilot used a personal Leatherman multi-tool to cut through the belt material and release the passenger. The passenger then egressed from the helicopter without further incident.
The pilot's decision to depart into an area of degraded visual meteorological and flat light conditions, which resulted in a loss of visual references and subsequent controlled flight into terrain.
Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database
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