ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 30303
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| Date: | Friday 4 January 2002 |
| Time: | 15:20 |
| Type: |  Agusta-Bell AB 206B JetRanger II |
| Owner/operator: | Fleet Coast Helicopters |
| Registration: | G-OFCH |
| MSN: | 8337 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1973 |
| Engine model: | Allison 250-C20 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Morn Farm, Chickerell, near Weymouth, Dorset -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Taxi |
| Nature: | Private |
| Departure airport: | Morn Farm, Chickerell, Weymouth, Dorset |
| Morn Farm, Chickerell, Weymouth, Dorset | |
| Investigating agency: | AAIB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
Agusta-Bell AB 206B JetRanger II G-OFCH: Written off (damaged beyond repair) 4/1/2002 when crashed at Morn Farm, Chickerell, near Weymouth, Dorset. The Bell 206 rolled onto its side during a low-level hover, sustaining substantial damage. Minor injury to pilot (sole person on board). According to the following excerpt from the official AAIB report into the accident:
"The pilot was re-positioning the helicopter on the landing pad and was in a hover at just 2 feet above the ground when the helicopter suddenly rolled to the right causing the main rotor to strike the ground. The rotor blades and the engine stopped immediately and, with the helicopter lying on its right side, the pilot was able to evacuate the cockpit through the area of the front windscreen.
The pilot estimated that at the time of the accident there was a surface wind of approximately 8 knots from his left. He could not make an assessment as to the cause of the accident."
G-OFCH was then rebuilt with the Jet Ranger 3 fuselage of N206HE which had also been wrecked in an accident. On September 30, 2002 the "composite" helicopter made its new certification with the FAA in the US, and has been operated since then as Jet Ranger III s/no 2880, registered N206HE. Which may explain why the UK registration G-OFCH was only belatedly cancelled by the CAA on 13 December 2011 - over nine years after its accident.
As if that was not complicated enough, the aircraft had already been re-registered several times, been involved in an accident, repaired, and then re-registered. On 29th January 1989 this helicopter was taking off from the lawn of a hotel in Grasmere, Cumbria at 15.00 hours; the pilot attempted to make vertical climbing take off because of the surrounding trees and buildings, but as it climbed, the helicopter began to make uncontrolled right turns. Believing that the tail rotor had failed the pilot made a descent to the ground but the helicopter struck the ground heavily and tipped onto its nose before coming to rest on the skids.
Pilot - Mr John Backhouse.
Passenger - Mr Andrew Bairstow.
Passenger - Mrs Sarah Backhouse.
Passenger - Name unknown.
John Backhouse died in a flying accident on 6th September 2017 when his Piper Navajo crashed at Caernarfon airport. He was sixty two years old.
This helicopter was initially registered on the UK civilian register by Autair Ltd, based at Luton Airport in June 1982 and it eventually passed to Mr John Backhouse, of Liverpool in May 1988. Following the above-mentioned mishap at Grasmere, Cumbria, it was repaired, and he sold it to Switzerland in July 1989, where it was re-registered as HB-XUI. It then was re-registered on the UK register once more, this time as G-OFCH in May 2011 to Fleet Coast Helicopters Ltd., but this registration was cancelled in 2011. It had, in fact, crashed some years earlier on 4th January 2002 near Weymouth, Dorset as per the above
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
1. AAIB Final Report: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5422f520e5274a1314000525/dft_avsafety_pdf_501517.pdf
2. Previous crash 29/1/1989 as G-BDKA: http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/lakes/bkda.html
3. Photos as HB-XUI (Swiss Registry): http://www.swissheli.com/history/hb-xui.htm
4. http://www.helicoptersafety.org/genericaccident.asp?ACType=B206
5. https://registry.faa.gov/AircraftInquiry/NNum_results.aspx?NNumbertxt=206HE
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 27-Sep-2008 01:00 | ASN archive | Added |
| 15-Feb-2015 20:03 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Date, Time, Registration, Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Damage, Narrative] |
| 23-Aug-2015 22:21 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Embed code] |
| 19-Jul-2016 16:07 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Location, Source, Narrative] |
| 19-Jul-2016 16:08 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Location, Narrative] |
| 13-Oct-2018 15:41 | TB | Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 10-Sep-2020 22:49 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 10-Sep-2020 23:08 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Source] |
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