NTSB preliminary report on June 18th helicopter crash landing.
Schweizer 300 similar to accident helicopter. Photo by Schweizer Helicopter.
I figured it is time I gave helicopters a little attention, so I thought I would write a post about the National Transportation and Safety Board’s (NTSB) preliminary report on the June 18th (2009) crash of a Schweizer 269C-1 (registration N942K) into an apartment complex’s pool area. The original post on this accident can be found HERE and I have to say that this is one of the few times when the information that was initially reported by agencies and mainstream media was almost entirely accurate.
Shortly before 10:30 AM EDT on the accident date, Scott Jackson, the pilot of the helicopter, was getting ready to depart on a cross-country instructional flight from Naples Municipal Airport (APF) to Immokalee Regional Airport (IMM). Both airports are in Florida. The pilot, who was a student helicopter pilot, stated that he completed a preflight inspection which included a check of the performance of the aircraft magnetos. To put it as simply as possible, magnetos are the devices on the aircraft’s engine that create the electrical charge needed for the spark plug to create a spark. Most light-aircraft engines have two spark-plugs per combustion chamber in the engine and each one of these spark plugs is connected to a different magneto system to establish redundancy and, in turn, improve safety. Usually, the magnetos are known as the right and left magnetos. On preflight, pilots check the operation of each magneto individually. This is done by selecting the magneto and checking to see that the engine revolutions per minute (RPM) does not drop down excessively. The pilot reported that he checked each magneto system and that the engine RPM drop was within the acceptable 125 RPM limit.
As the helicopter was taking off, the pilot noticed that he was getting a high engine manifold pressure and low engine RPMs (near the lower end of the acceptable range). The pilot attempted to correct for this and managed to lower the manifold pressure, but the engine RPM remained low. Soon after, he began hearing a low rotor RPM alarm (at this point the alarm was sounding intermittently), so he informed the tower he would be returning to the airport and turned. At the end of the turn, the low rotor RPM alarm went steady and the helicopter began to descend at a fast rate. The pilot looked for a safe spot to emergency land the helicopter and thought his best choice was a pool in an apartment complex as it seemed it was unoccupied. Unfortunately, the pilot was unable to land the copter in the pool and hit a trellis and small building near the pool instead. The pilot survived, but was injured in the accident.
Preliminary inspection of the engine by accident investigators revealed that there was a problem with the right magneto. The magneto is being further examined by the NTSB.
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