Again, I am super happy that 4 people walked away from this accident. I certainly will recognize that the overall cause of the helicopter to lose power (or whatever caused it to go down) could have been pilot error in the first place. He could have screwed up something with the fuel, he could have had an engine malfunction and then shut down the wrong engine, he could have just run out of fuel, or any other number of reasons,,,,,but,,,,,regardless of the cause,,,,this helicopter had an emergency and the pilot was able to land it upright and then the entire crew somehow managed to extricate themselves, and the patient, basically unscathed. In my book, regardless of the cause of the emergency in the first place, these efforts are heroic by everyone involved. And, I do suspect that the big open field that some have mentioned, is not flat and is actually a heavily sloped hill. Can anyone confirm? If it is heavily sloped, it really would not have been an ideal spot to attempt an emergency landing, right? Thanks for feedback folks! 😊
I can tell you that as a helicopter pilot, hitting upright, at night, on a small two lane road in the woods has to be one of the most amazing autorotation landings I've heard of. No matter the cause, that pilot is an artist!
That entire field is not steep or full of obstacles compared to trying to "land" on that particular bullseye on the road... There are several other fields along that road perfect for landing (some nearby have been/are used by helicopter power line tree trimming operations). The road however is literally nothing but curves, and also extremely narrow, with the widest spots being a few small intersections (similar to where he landed)... Unless he had very little time and travel to choose his landing spot, then I'm almost guessing it was pure luck and he was either roughly following the road or trying to land near it as problems arose... Maybe it was just very dark that particular night? To be fair it is steep mountainous death woods or nice open fields then repeat in that entire region... 🤷♂️
NTSB issues the final report into an accident involving a Med-Trans Corp (MTC) Eurocopter EC 135P2 helicopter, N558MT, that occurred on March 9, 2023, near Franklin, North Carolina: According to the pilot, prior to the flight, he determined the highest obstacle enroute was 6,100 ft with several 5,000 to 5,500 ft peaks along the route. In addition, he noted that during the flight, the end of evening nautical twilight would occur. After departure, he dialed 5,500 ft into the autopilot and leveled off. He went to don the night vision goggles and noted that they were on the copilot seat on top of an aircraft logbook. He went to move the logbook to the pilot door compartment, where it was typically stowed for flight, and decided to check the flight times against the times that maintenance was due. At that point, he noticed the cloud ceiling was lowering and dialed in 5,000 ft into the autopilot, then “went back heads down' to continue his review of the logbook. Then, the flight nurse asked for an updated estimated time enroute, and when the pilot looked up, he saw the helicopter was approaching a tree covered peak. He applied aft cyclic in order to climb; however the tail boom struck several trees, resulting in the vertical stabilizer separating from the tail boom. The pilot subsequently performed a forced landing to a road, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage and tail boom. The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation. Probable Cause: The pilot's improper decision to review an aircraft logbook while enroute, which resulted in controlled flight into terrain.
Aw man I feel for him. He was actually trying to be a thorough operator, but made about the most human mistake you ever could. Incredible landing, however. I would absolutely trust this pilot. That certainly was not what I would call an 'error of bad character', and I hope the guy isnt too hard on himself over it.
I flew for this program for around 12 years and I found out about the accident shortly after it happened. To say I barely kept from loosing my shit (sorry!) until I got the “all safe” from my “family” (not flying). I know I flew with some of the most experienced and safest pilots in the industry in my LF time along with being provided amazing education and training. As a Flight Medic/RN I was able to provide some of the most advanced skills and treatments thanks to being associated directly with Erlanger. As do in any/all work places, the program wasn’t perfect BUT it didn’t miss perfect by much! I am so thankful all four walked away from this accident and I hope you will continue to follow along as the investigation progresses so shared learning happens. And maybe, just maybe, it helps the next crew involved in an accident to be able to say ALL SAFE as they walk away.
I think maybe he was actually aiming for the field and wound up sliding down the hill onto the road because he's kinda tucked up under the trees. Either way it's great that everyone survived, because if he had lost power you only get one shot at autorotation.
Thank you 🙏🏼 Doctor Medic Yes, bad ass Pilot and crew 🤗🙏🏼 also thanks to Erlanger for having very well trained Medical Pilot, Paramedics and flight Nurses on their teams. Oh, my nephew was in the picture of the staff you showed. Looking forward for more on this when you have more information. Even if you don’t I’m so glad I ran across your channel. Keep up the great work ❤ prayers for all
Not a Bad Ass only a bad decision. We don't need "bad ass" people in this industry. Sure seems with the info given here, that he should have climbed and not descended.
The fact that they were able to pull this off at night is amazing. Anybody who flies under NVG’s knows how hard it is to judge slopes / grades and depth perception while on goggles. My guess is that if landing on the road was intentional - it was because at night time under goggles it was the safest quick bet you could make that the grade would be somewhat flat. Of course there’s always the assumption of wires running along every roadway, but if you’re faced with a crash landing or autorotation, the wires 20ft off the ground could be worth it.
This is why the good pilots routinely practice autorotations... he got that bird down about as good as anyone could have hoped. Too bad he didn't have a place to land with less obstacles - but all's well that ends well.
A heck of a landing, in any situation. This is a whole new level of amazing. Perhaps the open field would have been a better choice but in darkness there's no way to know what kind of surface you will land on, at least on the road, the surface is nice and level and the pilot knew what to expect.
Not to take away from the pilot accomplishments here but I wonder why he didnt put it down in the wide open field next to the road? It would seem a better landing spot and a lot softer? Great job on the med crew for getting the patient out. What if that patient was intubated and had several lines with titrated meds?? It would have been pure heroics to manually bag the patient and keep the meds going without an IVAC or pump. Total speculation but definitely some great work all the way around here.
The narrator said this happened in the dark. He MAY HAVE been aiming for that field and lost his rotor energy when in autorotation? These Eurocopters are notorious for losing their engines when the mechanics mistakenly put the fuel filters in backward. They can go in either way, but IF the mechanic puts it in backward, eventually the filter stops the flow of fuel to the engine and the engine stalls resulting in the copter going down. My wife used to work with 3 Sheriff Deputies who were flying at night in their County's Eurocopter over the dam of a nearby lake when they lost power from the engine stalling. The two pilots tried to put it down away from traffic that went across the dam, but didn't have enough energy in the rotors to make it to the top part of the bank of where the river flowed below the damage. They hit face first into the bank which killed both pilots instantly and severely injured the other Deputy in the rear seat. When they investigated the wreckage, they found the fuel filter installed in reverse which caused the loss of power to the jet engine. THEN, not too long back from now, they had ANOTHER Eurocopter of theirs went down in a pasture during the day. That pilot fortunately was able to autogyro it down and land it with no damage, but the engine lost power and I'll BET that it was from the fuel filter being installed improperly as well.
Dark rural country with no light the pilot did some incredible flying. Possibly saw headlights on the road. Being near a road is obviously advantageous for responding first responders.
..NIGHT-time. “Looks” CAN BE deceiving. If what I saw from the pics Justin had it appears to me that to the left OR REAR of the aircraft, HE SLID ‘DOWN’ from a higher point of elevated ground..ONTO the road.
This happened after dark in a very remote area. I won't assume anything, but I'm sure they did the best they could and the road is probably all they were able to see. I know most of all the personnel who fly on LF6, they are all great and top-notch. This particular aircraft did use a rear loaded Stryker stretcher. The aircraft is based out of our airport here in Cherokee County NC. We utilize them almost daily due to our area.
The Eurocopter rotor system is very tough. Best in the industry. I flew the BK 117 (all variants), for a bit over 3k hrs; and it's a great design. But the BK was jointly built by Germany and Japan with mostly American engines. Later models had the Turbomeca series. Loved it. Great flying skills on the pilot, and appears to be a well trained crew. 🙏🙏🇺🇸
We will soon find that the cause of this accident was certainly pilot error, but the ability for him to safely get the aircraft on the ground was absolute amazing, in my opinion!
The patient being on his back, and strapped down onto the stretcher was probably the one in the best body position for a downward force crash of this nature in my opinion.
The safety record is problematic. In general. Juan Brown AKA Blancolirio on TH-cam deals with this stuff. He escoriated the recent Wyoming fatal. For one pilot. Flying in terrible weather from one excellent hospital to another. Also Dan Grider. his handle escapes me . Probable Cause possibly?
@@discofun I stand by my statement. We all make mistakes and this one COULD have ended in 4 fatalities, but that's not what the outcome was. Ultimately a job well done.
The dual controls are generally only installed during training. It's a pain (and risky) for the med crew to get in and out with duals, and you can't carry a ride-along up front (mommy) with duals. Number of engines had nothing to do with the quality you assume for the landing. Your speculations are generally poorly informed. We DONT fly at the weight limit all the time, we keep a performance margin. Given that they were loaded ( patient on board ), they had already flown to sending (or scene), and were on the way to receiving, and had burned significant fuel, so would have been well below max gross weight. Also cool winter weather indicates good performance. If this was a single engine failure, they probably had performance to continue flight. I'm an EMS helicopter pilot and I HATE it when people think the pilot was "a hero" with nearly zero facts about the accident. Sadly, most of the time, we CAUSE the accident. The statistics bear this out. To address the peanut gallery, there is an EXCELLENT way to know what the landing surface is in darkness. NVGs and we all fly with them. Fact is, we're all going to have to wait for the final NtSB report, that will take a year or more to come out, to find out (probably) what really happened here.
Chris let’s give the doctor medic a little respect here and grace if you feel is wrong ! I hear what your saying as I would argue some of the same points having said all that I honestly think his heart is in the rite place and was excited that all pobs lived just my two cents
Hi Chris. I agree with most of what you are saying. The heroism, at least in my opinion, is focused on the fact that the pilot had the ability to put the aircraft down safely and that the entire crew managed to get out, with the patient, relatively unharmed. But, I certainly agree 100% with you that the initial cause of the aircraft going down very well could have been the pilot's fault, or any other number of known, or unknown, reasons. You sound like an experienced HEMS pilot and I appreciate your feedback, sir.
I wonder if he was going to land in the field which looks like a more suitable spot, then decided to try and put it on the road. At night, under goggles, with an emergency and in that terrain it's very difficult. Hats off to pilot. Hopefully we'll find out reason for the forced landing.
Night plus bad weather = death. It seems not all pilots are being taught this in basic indoc anymore. Too bad. Accident rates seem ( anecdotally ) to be going back up.
Life Force 6 would come to Mission Hospital a lot while I worked there as a Comm. Spec. Thankfully they all survived and were tracking so they could be found quickly. On the other side of Franklin to Waynesville we would loose tracking on FlightRadar24, AirNav Radar Box and ADS-B exchange due to the lack of receiver antennas in the area,, the frequency of most helicopter transponders and their lower altitude. prayers for the flight crew, pilot and patient.
I’m wondering if the pilot set down on the road behind the photographer and skidded down the road, the drone shot suggests that. Forward movement may have been the factor for choosing the road to prevent digging into the field and overturning.
I would assume he chose the road to land on as its easier for a ground ambulance to transport them to a hospital, certainly the patient. I’m not a pilot by any means but that’s what I would do. The field next to the road is virtually inadmissible to ground crews. Besides, the trees would shorten the rotorblades and might save lives in a roll over. I might be far fetched but I don’t fly these things.
Be interesting to see the final report, if he was making a forced landing due to diminished power I wonder why he didn’t go for that big open field instead of the road. If you look to the left of the aircraft in the drone shot, you can see the tree branch that was struck. I wonder if that was the cause of the damage to the rotor blades in the tail. And interested fall from that height by that heavy of an aircraft plus the tree strike accounts for the damage that can be seen on the airframe. Not to take anything away from the pilot. Any landing like that is a good landing when everybody walks away from it. But as a helicopter pilot myself, I would’ve chose the big field without trees in it, as opposed to the road with trees on both sides and little chance of rotor clearance.
You do a phenom of a job sir. Tip 'o the cap. Just wanted to indicate my agreement with your call on that bad ass pilot. Spot on. We used to practice confined space autos back in the day and they always terrified me. When I say practice I don't mean full downs, obviously. Also, BK117s are BAD ASS. And the last thing....I notice and appreciate your depth of knowledge in your field and in aviation. And you really are doing the pilots and crews a great service by explaining the investigation process, and most importantly....you explain why accidents that the FAA will call pilot error, are not always a slam dunk "condemn the pilot" scenario that the general public may think.. It's really awesome of you to get that out there. Thanks for your efforts!
That dashed line in the ADS-B indicates no data received. It is a gap in the data. Thus, the line is a simple straight line projection between the data points that were received. The dashed line is not indicative of an aircraft "holding their heading". For all we know the flight path was anything but straight during that span, the squirreliness could have commenced during that missing segment. Leave the review of flight data to real pilots, doc.
That area is hard to gauge where a cliff is. Looks like Hwy 74 but then they all do there. What's really remarkable is traffic didn't blindly plough into the them on either side. Very glad they didn't suffer life threatening injuries and were helped. Thanks for sharing
The road was Middle Burningtown Rd but I could not confirm where. The road isn't that long though. Great point about traffic coming around the corner. There were several witnesses to the crash and 911 calls were pretty clear. I wonder if the 911 callers were able to flag drivers on both sides?
@@TheDrMedic This was in my home town. I have E-911 and fire service experience and have been to the crash site. I can confirm that the big open field(s) you are referring are not suitable for landing. There are several hazards IE. Power lines and fences etc. The approximate coordinates of the crash are 35.2202347,-83.483615. Hope this helps you take a look at the area. Love your channel and you have a new subscriber. Would love to see you make a video with MAMA ( Mission Air Medical Ambulance ) Based in Asheville, NC and Franklin, NC. Keep up the great work Doc Medic.
I was at work in the Surgical Trauma ICU that 3 of the 4 people were inbound for that night. Thankfully they were all stable and did not require critical care admissions.
If he was in control, why didn't he land in that big open field right next to the road? That would have been a better option. Besides, twin or not, helicopters have the ability to autorotate during an emergency engine out landing. That, when properly executed, is a controlled landing. When we designed the Allison Model 250-40B engines for the Bell 430 twin back in the 90s, we used a FADEC system for automatic engine starting and torque and speed management. That also allowed us to provide an emergency One Engine Inoperative (OEI) rating of 820 HP for 30 seconds. Take off rating was 715 HP for five minutes. I redesigned the gear train to allow these ratings to be available. The previous take off ratings for the Series IV engines was 650 HP. I haven't been involved in the rotorcraft business for a while, but I would bet that the EC135, being a newer helicopter than the 430, has an OEI rating as well.
If he was that great why didn't he auto rotated into the open field!? I believe he should buy a lottery ticket.very lucky crew.i don't believe he had much control. Very good pilot no doubt but he had help from above.my humble opinion.i respect other opinions.
The pilot really thread the needle on this one. We can't help but notice the wide open field on both side of those trees. *Thank God they all walked away from this.*
I see what your saying, was thinking the same thing, then the second photo kinda looks like he was trying for a field but wound up on the road, With the trees on both sides of the road I doubt they could see that road at night. Thankfully they survived. We'll have to wait for the NTSB report to really know. For now Are thoughts and prayers are with them.
Fields were the first thing I noticed - However, as John said, it is all a black hole at night and you would have never seen them. Their Nav GPS "should" have a road layer available to them. Not a sure thing but it beats the tops of the trees in that area...
As someone pointed out, the "field" is uphill from the road and there are marks suggestive that the helo touched down there and slid down to the road. So that "field" might be not nearly as flat or as friendly to an autorotation as it looks. Still a really good job.
I am not a pilot nor mechanic, but it's my understanding that turbines are normally limited by egt, which will rapidly cause damage if they get too high. I know some military aircraft have "maximum power" and "military power" to allow you to go above 100% output, realizing that you're causing permanent damage. Do you think something like that might be warranted on dual engine helicopters? The second engine might only last for 5 minutes at 125% power, but if that makes the difference between landing in a field versus crashing on a road... Worth it.
Im certainly no air accident investigator, but the aircraft displayed a maximum barometric altitude of 5100' msl, and burningtown bald is 5115' msl. The previous segment was around 4900' msl. Night VFR in the mountains is not a forgiving activity.
So, it was a P2+, and despite it only having flown maybe 10(?) minutes before the accident, fully-loaded that aircraft should be able to fly on one engine to an airport to do a run-on landing. 10 minutes is about 45-50 lbs of fuel, but unless it was able to fuel at the hospital of origination, it would have even less than that. We train single-engine ops at MGTOW in the sim during our recurrent training and those aircraft will fly on one engine fully-loaded. They wont fly fast, and they cant hover OGE, but they will stay airborne.
I just saw the NTSB report. The narrative in the report describes the series of events. "After departure, he dialed 5,500 feet into the autopilot and leveled off. He went to don the night vision goggles and noted that they were on the copilot seat on top of an aircraft logbook. He went to move the logbook to the pilot door compartment, where it was typically stowed for flight, and decided to check the flight times against the times that maintenance was due. At that point, he noticed the cloud ceiling was lowering and dialed in 5,000 feet into the autopilot, then 'went back heads down' to continue his review of the logbook," the report said. "Then, the flight nurse asked for an updated estimated time en route, and when the pilot looked up, he saw the helicopter was approaching a tree-covered peak." According to the report, the pilot then attempted to climb but the helicopter's tail boom struck several trees, separating the craft's vertical stabilizer from the tail boom. "The pilot subsequently performed a forced landing to a road, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage and tail boom," the report said. "The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation."
Ah man, the typical pilot error mistake? (At least from the videos I've watched on this channel) Well, great he reacted in a manner that resulted in no loss of life but the catch with just-enough-automation-to-be-dangerous is this situation becomes all too common.
Have you heard about the luckiest man in the world?? He got hit by an ambulance in front of the hospital!! How about the unluckiest man in the world? See description of the patient in this video! LoL he is very lucky I know things could have been so much worse off. If it is not your time to go, nothing can kill you!!
My neighbor just sold and retired from owning our local life-force ambulance/ems/our ambulance.. sad, but a blessing to have him as our neighbor nevertheless. I livein northwestern Pennsylvania on the border of Ohio and PA. Now the service is one of a company out of Erie. Not that excited, but by the grace of God I've never had to take a ride with them. 😊 take care yall
Drop the "bad ass" label for any of these pilots and crews. You wouldn't want a "bad ass" airline pilot, nor would you want a "bad ass" brain surgeon. You have a fine program full a great info but these crews deserve professional recognition when they do well. Save the "bad ass" label for thugs and Hollywood heroes.
Would there be a fire suppression system the pilot could pull after touching down? Obviously I'm not a pilot myself, just wondering how this did not burn.
came here after seeing video on the new EC135 crash in FL, caused by some sort of inflight fire that ate away at structure and caused tail to start to fall off and helicopter crashed 1 dead a few survivors.
Just to clarify, the program I worked for, MAMA, Mountain Area Medical Airlift in Asheville, NC pioneered the use of NVGs for HEMS in 1994, becoming the first program in the US certified to do so. It makes a huge difference because as soon as we were outside the metro Asheville area, it gets very dark, very fast. Love your program by the way.
@@TheDrMedic Hi, I slightly misspoke: our Chief Pilot at the time, Dutch Fridd began the process around 1996, with final STC in 1999. But still the first in the nation. Looking at the crash photos, I also believe the pilot of LF6 had a serious mechanical problem because they were able to issue an emergency radio call just beforehand, and it also looked like they had nearly zero forward airspeed probably (I also hate to guess) due to an autorotation "we are putting this thing down right here, right now" type of emergency landing. CFIT almost always ends with a smoking hole in the ground, and with absolutely amazing skill, he sat it down rather heavily with some vertical G's. MAMA has 2 A/C: an EC 145 at Mission Hospital in Asheville and an EC 135 in Franklin, NC and has been in operation since 1986. I really enjoy your channel, you do very good work to help improve the safety of HEMS programs. Keep up the good work!
1999 is still super early. That's pretty cool. Yes, certainly a lot of possibilities that could have led up to this. MAMA sounds like an amazing service with some super cool aircraft! Thanks again for watching!
well if you look at the weather at the time you will see overcast, scat rain in the area, low illum, and worsening weather throught the rest of the night. understand there was a distress call so maybe it wasnt weather related...the ec135 has a stellar maint record. More than anything the patient is stable, survived the transport and a helicopter crash so makes you wonder if they even should have flown...we all know we can get a box of apples to meet medical necessity
I flew medical helicopters for 13+ years. The absolute worst helicopter I flew was an EC-135. Under-powered and slow…give me a Bell 407 or Augusta A119 any day! Glad all survived! 😁
Great perspective from a pilot, @david! I think many medical crew absolutely would prefer the 135 (over those two models you mentioned) since there is more room in the back and most models use an actual patient stretcher instead of a sled system. You’re not the first pilot that has said the 135 is underpowered. Do you think that it is underpowered in every setup or just for HEMS?
I've been enjoying the content a lot....but you have to ease off on all the annoying sounds throughout the video...the pop-ups with chimes make it very frustrating...especially when listening thru earbuds. You should at least mute those. Very annoying.
this is a great outcome but somehow i don't think you (thedoctormedic) have a clue what you are talking about there is no way that pilot wanted to land on that street when there was a huge field right there im sure he/she is a great pilot but they ended up on the road by chance the pilot had there hands full and did a awesome job no matter where they sat that heli down
Hi there. That huge field is actually a very high hill that, most likely, would not even be suitable to land in even in clear and sunny weather due to the steep slope. The pilot did first consider this field, but ultimately chose the road. Per the pilot, "Noticing the two-lane hard ball road briefly, I attempted to direct the aircraft there to execute a cut-gun autorotation."
Definitely a remarkable outcome and very good job by all those involved!! A little bit of luck mixed with some help from perhaps a guardian angel if you believe in that combined with skill from a badass pilot made it possible for all souls on board to go home and see thier loved ones once again!! The picture from the drone shot above looks as though they might have been aiming for the field just behind where they ended up coming to a stop at. I'm no pilot but if I had to set down in a hurry I would not choose the hard blacktop road surface with trees and power lines all around if I could avoid it. "Landing" next to the road so emergency personnel could reach us easier would be ideal but idk about smack in the middle like that. I think they ended up there but not on purpose to be honest. How about the patient in the back though!! Already medical problems just to crash on the way and get more most likely. Damnit! That sucks!!
What you and others like to describe as a "bad ass" pilot resulted in a "bad ass" accident which very likely could have been avoided by a normal ass competent pilot.
Kudos to the pilot. Night, trees all over, probably no lights on the ground, main rotors intact as much as they are, landing on a two lane road. Hard landing on the skids and everyone survived. This is the definition of threading the needle.
Yup, you're wrong on this one. Once in cruise, the aircraft should have been able to maintain level flight on the remaining engine if the other engine had quit (otherwise, what's the point of having 2 engines?). There seems to be open fields beside the road, so what was so exceptional putting it on a road that is very confined; it would have been much easier and safer landing in an open field? I think that the helo was not fully under control. Could have been a transmission problem, and I noticed that the speed increased significantly before it hit the ground. A double engine failure should have permitted an autorotation and a much softer landing. Sounds like a major component failure, and an urgency to put the thing down ASAP.
ding ding ding Poster has a hard on for the pilot landing on the road when.... "There seems to be open fields beside the road, so what was so exceptional putting it on a road that is very confined; it would have been much easier and safer landing in an open field?"
Ding ding ding. I’m saying that, because of a possible major non-engine malfunction that was about to make it fall out of the sky, , the pilot didn’t have the time to choose a better place (in a nearby open field). Ding ding ding…..
You've talked about these incidents not having much news time allocated to them, and this is a good example because this is the first I've heard about this and it's where I live.
Too much background, to many adjectives, too much "imagining", too much padding/waffle and not many facts. Sorry, not impressed ... I think this is the first video of yours that I have seen.
It’s only hours old, did you not notice that? It’s like a preliminary news release, all the analysis takes time. I’m sure he will revisit the incident when the investigation comes back with the results.
@paulmartin2166 Yeah, the media do it all the time, my YT feed gets loads of them every day, and they're 1½-2 minutes, tops, even other YTers do it, and can get their initial report completed in 4-6 minutes - if the news is a car wreck I don't need a history of the Chevrolet car company, if it's a story about groceries price inflation I don't need a corporate history of Kroger, _etc._
This type of flying is a tough business; I flew for the Army Guard in Massachusetts in a Medevac/Dustoff. To your comment about being first, actually, we were. The program was called "Military Assistance to Safety and Traffic" or (MAST). This was in the late 1970s and we were the MAST unit for New England. I was a medical crew member and I flew many medical missions with civilian patients. I also later became an air traffic controller in my 20's and I was at Bradley when Life Star crashed after hitting power lines. We just lost 5 in a medical crash of a Pilatus last week. Like I said, tough business.
Lucky, lucky folks! By the sheared off rotors, they obviously came down through the trees. Doing that and still being lucky enough to hit on all the impact-absorbing underside stuff is miraculous. This would have been a very different outcome had they hit on one of the aircraft’s sides.
It would be interesting if you did a segment on: "On May 9, two Cessna Citation 550s operated by air-ambulance operator Air Trek lost power-in both jets’ engines-due to fuel contamination by diesel exhaust fluid"
Interesting. MAMA is also certainly an amazing program from what I've heard. I had only mentioned LIFE FORCE being one of the first to use NVGs as they make that claim on their site here lifeforceairmed.com/101/ I wonder if there is a way to clarify?
@@TheDrMedic MAMA started some time in 1999 "FAA approvals are granted on an individual basis and can be somewhat ad hoc. In 1999 Rocky Mountain Helicopters became the first air taxi company to earn FAA approval to use NVGs for its EMS helicopters. Dutch Fridd, an EMS pilot was the first civilian appointed as an NVG instructor by the Federal Aviation Administration in 1999." From an article called Dancing in the Dark, Smithsonian Air & Space magazine. I flew for MAMA from 2004 to 2008 in Franklin, NC and we used NVGs in our BO-105, BK-117 and EC-135 aircraft.
Do the paramedics have training for helicopter landing in US? When paramedic is sitting next to the pilot and they work as an extra eyes in the sky. I mean in case of emergency - when the pilot is sick/having cardiac arrest and cannot control the machine? In our country they work also as a navigators. Also pilots are helping with the patient as an extra hands sometimes.
Hi there. There actually are a few HEMS operators in the U.S. who are doing training for pilot incapacitation. But, I am not sure how in-depth they might go. While most pilots here in the states are not really required to help with the patient, most of them do if the opportunity presents itself, especially with loading and unloading.
The weather was rough, windy and rain. Not sure but during the time this occurred it was misting on the ground in Murphy, slight wind and about 50 degrees
Look in front of him. There is at least a 100 acre open field. And EMS HAS THE best landing search lights. He flew over the open field to crash in the tree's.
"He flew over the open field to crash in the tree's (sic)." Maybe, maybe not. I flew 2500+ missions in my time with MAMA out of nearby Asheville, NC. I was a Nurse/Medic who rode in many different ships: BO 105's, BK 117, AS 350, and finally the EC 135. It also helped that we had one of the best A&P mechanics in the industry- Karl Esbenshade, who was awarded the AAMS "Mechanic of the Year." I recall our pilots being very careful about trying to read the mind of another pilot who has to make the best decision under extreme duress. Sometimes when things go to hell in a hurry the only place to land is where the pilot is looking through the chin bubble.
To get that aircraft down and everyone survived is not only testament to the helicopter manufacturer but the pilots remarkable skill must have played a massive role in this accident… remarkably since most accidents don’t end well.. Top Bloke👍👍👍
Due to the hills and terrain and just being so far from many receivers I suspect that the transponder just didn't have any available receivers during the time the dashed line appears because once it does reappear, the aircraft is exactly back where it should be. But, I do agree that there certainly could have been some squirreliness during that time span.
If you've not read the EMS Safety Study published in 2006 by John's Hopkins it is worth a look. During the '80s and 90's, fatal EMS helicopter accidents were so common they had been compared to the dangers of the Alaskan fisheries. Many of the recommendations from the report are in place today but many are not. The report is a great read and it comes up with a simple Google search. Outstanding channel, keep them coming.
At one point in the 2000s, EMS helicopter was the most hazardous job in the US (depending on the metrics used). A ton of changes were being made, but had not yet made it to the fleet. NVGs, OCC, flight tracking, improved weather information fidelity, intense training including IIMC, and more capable aircraft have saved countless lives since then.
Looking at the state of that wreck particularly the blades it looks very much like complete power loss, in which case where and how he put it down is indeed badass! I think with a single engine running he would have had better energy management perhaps fuel starvation - I am sure the trees softened the final impact. Well done to the PIC and crew and well done Airbus
What about the blades leads you to believe that there was an engine failure? In an autorotation, when done correctly, the rotor speed is the same (give or take) as when the engines are driving it.
Drop the "bad ass" nonsense. What was determined after NTSB investigation that the cause of the accident was related to pilot error. This mission flown properly by a normal ass pilot would have gotten crew and aircraft to the intended destination without this drama.
@Chris-bg8mk I'd have to look but I know of a 35 that had duel hp comp failure from overspeed. I know I've seen others where an engine grenades and takes out the others but can't say right now a 35.
Again, I am super happy that 4 people walked away from this accident. I certainly will recognize that the overall cause of the helicopter to lose power (or whatever caused it to go down) could have been pilot error in the first place. He could have screwed up something with the fuel, he could have had an engine malfunction and then shut down the wrong engine, he could have just run out of fuel, or any other number of reasons,,,,,but,,,,,regardless of the cause,,,,this helicopter had an emergency and the pilot was able to land it upright and then the entire crew somehow managed to extricate themselves, and the patient, basically unscathed. In my book, regardless of the cause of the emergency in the first place, these efforts are heroic by everyone involved.
And, I do suspect that the big open field that some have mentioned, is not flat and is actually a heavily sloped hill. Can anyone confirm? If it is heavily sloped, it really would not have been an ideal spot to attempt an emergency landing, right? Thanks for feedback folks! 😊
I can tell you that as a helicopter pilot, hitting upright, at night, on a small two lane road in the woods has to be one of the most amazing autorotation landings I've heard of. No matter the cause, that pilot is an artist!
That entire field is not steep or full of obstacles compared to trying to "land" on that particular bullseye on the road... There are several other fields along that road perfect for landing (some nearby have been/are used by helicopter power line tree trimming operations). The road however is literally nothing but curves, and also extremely narrow, with the widest spots being a few small intersections (similar to where he landed)... Unless he had very little time and travel to choose his landing spot, then I'm almost guessing it was pure luck and he was either roughly following the road or trying to land near it as problems arose... Maybe it was just very dark that particular night? To be fair it is steep mountainous death woods or nice open fields then repeat in that entire region... 🤷♂️
what about the 5th?
@@coptertim Who said it was an autorotation?
Looking at the picture... why did the pilot not land the aircraft in the big green field on the other side of the row of trees???
NTSB issues the final report into an accident involving a Med-Trans Corp (MTC) Eurocopter EC 135P2 helicopter, N558MT, that occurred on March 9, 2023, near Franklin, North Carolina:
According to the pilot, prior to the flight, he determined the highest obstacle enroute was 6,100 ft with several 5,000 to 5,500 ft peaks along the route. In addition, he noted that during the flight, the end of evening nautical twilight would occur. After departure, he dialed 5,500 ft into the autopilot and leveled off. He went to don the night vision goggles and noted that they were on the copilot seat on top of an aircraft logbook. He went to move the logbook to the pilot door compartment, where it was typically stowed for flight, and decided to check the flight times against the times that maintenance was due. At that point, he noticed the cloud ceiling was lowering and dialed in 5,000 ft into the autopilot, then “went back heads down' to continue his review of the logbook. Then, the flight nurse asked for an updated estimated time enroute, and when the pilot looked up, he saw the helicopter was approaching a tree covered peak. He applied aft cyclic in order to climb; however the tail boom struck several trees, resulting in the vertical stabilizer separating from the tail boom.
The pilot subsequently performed a forced landing to a road, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage and tail boom. The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable Cause: The pilot's improper decision to review an aircraft logbook while enroute, which resulted in controlled flight into terrain.
Funny how nobody seems to be interested in the facts after all of the hype and speculation fizzles out.
Aw man I feel for him. He was actually trying to be a thorough operator, but made about the most human mistake you ever could.
Incredible landing, however. I would absolutely trust this pilot. That certainly was not what I would call an 'error of bad character', and I hope the guy isnt too hard on himself over it.
I flew for this program for around 12 years and I found out about the accident shortly after it happened. To say I barely kept from loosing my shit (sorry!) until I got the “all safe” from my “family” (not flying).
I know I flew with some of the most experienced and safest pilots in the industry in my LF time along with being provided amazing education and training. As a Flight Medic/RN I was able to provide some of the most advanced skills and treatments thanks to being associated directly with Erlanger. As do in any/all work places, the program wasn’t perfect BUT it didn’t miss perfect by much!
I am so thankful all four walked away from this accident and I hope you will continue to follow along as the investigation progresses so shared learning happens. And maybe, just maybe, it helps the next crew involved in an accident to be able to say ALL SAFE as they walk away.
Guardian Flight and Med Trans are both GMR ( Global Medical Response) companies. That’s 3 crashed in less than 3 months.
Only if you include fixed wing, right?
@@Chris-bg8mk There’s been 4 major incidents with fixed wing and 2 rotors in the last few years.
@@MrRazorback1975 those are very scary stats.
Plus Air Methods crash just a few days ago.
PRAYERS TO THE PILOT! Wish you well SIR! Be safe!
If you've ever needed to interview a crew, its this crew. Remarkable!!!
I think maybe he was actually aiming for the field and wound up sliding down the hill onto the road because he's kinda tucked up under the trees. Either way it's great that everyone survived, because if he had lost power you only get one shot at autorotation.
Thank you 🙏🏼 Doctor Medic
Yes, bad ass Pilot and crew 🤗🙏🏼 also thanks to Erlanger for having very well trained Medical Pilot, Paramedics and flight Nurses on their teams.
Oh, my nephew was in the picture of the staff you showed.
Looking forward for more on this when you have more information. Even if you don’t I’m so glad I ran across your channel. Keep up the great work ❤ prayers for all
It was PILOT ERROR. CONTROLLED FLIGHT INTO TERRAIN. Pilot was READING and crashed into trees!!!!!! NOT A HERO
Not a Bad Ass only a bad decision. We don't need "bad ass" people in this industry. Sure seems with the info given here, that he should have climbed and not descended.
The fact that they were able to pull this off at night is amazing. Anybody who flies under NVG’s knows how hard it is to judge slopes / grades and depth perception while on goggles. My guess is that if landing on the road was intentional - it was because at night time under goggles it was the safest quick bet you could make that the grade would be somewhat flat. Of course there’s always the assumption of wires running along every roadway, but if you’re faced with a crash landing or autorotation, the wires 20ft off the ground could be worth it.
Where does he say they were wearing NVGs?
He didn't.
They were not.
It was PILOT ERROR. CONTROLLED FLIGHT INTO TERRAIN. Pilot was READING and crashed into trees!!!!!! NOT A HERO
This is why the good pilots routinely practice autorotations... he got that bird down about as good as anyone could have hoped. Too bad he didn't have a place to land with less obstacles - but all's well that ends well.
Autorotation had nothing to do with this accident. Had he performed in a proper manner for IIMC there would have been no need to crash land anywhere.
A heck of a landing, in any situation. This is a whole new level of amazing. Perhaps the open field would have been a better choice but in darkness there's no way to know what kind of surface you will land on, at least on the road, the surface is nice and level and the pilot knew what to expect.
It was PILOT ERROR. CONTROLLED FLIGHT INTO TERRAIN. Pilot was READING and crashed into trees!!!!!! NOT A HERO
[citation needed]
No citation; retraining in IIMC operations.
Not to take away from the pilot accomplishments here but I wonder why he didnt put it down in the wide open field next to the road? It would seem a better landing spot and a lot softer? Great job on the med crew for getting the patient out. What if that patient was intubated and had several lines with titrated meds?? It would have been pure heroics to manually bag the patient and keep the meds going without an IVAC or pump. Total speculation but definitely some great work all the way around here.
May have just overshot the field.
You don’t have the luxury of pinpoint landing in this sort of scenario in an Airbus, you have moments and meters
The narrator said this happened in the dark. He MAY HAVE been aiming for that field and lost his rotor energy when in autorotation? These Eurocopters are notorious for losing their engines when the mechanics mistakenly put the fuel filters in backward. They can go in either way, but IF the mechanic puts it in backward, eventually the filter stops the flow of fuel to the engine and the engine stalls resulting in the copter going down.
My wife used to work with 3 Sheriff Deputies who were flying at night in their County's Eurocopter over the dam of a nearby lake when they lost power from the engine stalling. The two pilots tried to put it down away from traffic that went across the dam, but didn't have enough energy in the rotors to make it to the top part of the bank of where the river flowed below the damage. They hit face first into the bank which killed both pilots instantly and severely injured the other Deputy in the rear seat. When they investigated the wreckage, they found the fuel filter installed in reverse which caused the loss of power to the jet engine. THEN, not too long back from now, they had ANOTHER Eurocopter of theirs went down in a pasture during the day. That pilot fortunately was able to autogyro it down and land it with no damage, but the engine lost power and I'll BET that it was from the fuel filter being installed improperly as well.
Dark rural country with no light the pilot did some incredible flying. Possibly saw headlights on the road. Being near a road is obviously advantageous for responding first responders.
..NIGHT-time. “Looks” CAN BE deceiving. If what I saw from the pics Justin had it appears to me that to the left OR REAR of the aircraft, HE SLID ‘DOWN’ from a higher point of elevated ground..ONTO the road.
Absolutely stellar piloting
is when you DON'T have an accident.
He was reading the logbook and flew it into the trees
Stellar piloting would have gotten the aircraft and crew to their intended destination without damage and drama.
This happened after dark in a very remote area. I won't assume anything, but I'm sure they did the best they could and the road is probably all they were able to see.
I know most of all the personnel who fly on LF6, they are all great and top-notch.
This particular aircraft did use a rear loaded Stryker stretcher.
The aircraft is based out of our airport here in Cherokee County NC. We utilize them almost daily due to our area.
Thanks for the clarification on a couple of those points, @Jonathan King!
The Eurocopter rotor system is very tough. Best in the industry. I flew the BK 117 (all variants), for a bit over 3k hrs; and it's a great design. But the BK was jointly built by Germany and Japan with mostly American engines. Later models had the Turbomeca series. Loved it. Great flying skills on the pilot, and appears to be a well trained crew. 🙏🙏🇺🇸
We will soon find that the cause of this accident was certainly pilot error, but the ability for him to safely get the aircraft on the ground was absolute amazing, in my opinion!
The patient being on his back, and strapped down onto the stretcher was probably the one in the best body position for a downward force crash of this nature in my opinion.
I know this helicopter. It's base was the Western Carolina Regional Airport in Andrews, NC. I remember the last night before it crashed.
WHY didn't the pilot land 50 feet away in the open field??? The craft might have faired a lot better.
The safety record is problematic. In general.
Juan Brown AKA Blancolirio on TH-cam deals with this stuff.
He escoriated the recent Wyoming fatal.
For one pilot. Flying in terrible weather from one excellent hospital to another.
Also Dan Grider. his handle escapes me .
Probable Cause possibly?
Pilot to pilot, hats off for sticking the landing and everyone walking away. No judgment, just job well done.
It was PILOT ERROR. CONTROLLED FLIGHT INTO TERRAIN. Pilot was READING and crashed into trees!!!!!! NOT A HERO
@@discofun I stand by my statement. We all make mistakes and this one COULD have ended in 4 fatalities, but that's not what the outcome was. Ultimately a job well done.
I believe he was going for the field came up short and ended up on the road glad all was ok
The dual controls are generally only installed during training. It's a pain (and risky) for the med crew to get in and out with duals, and you can't carry a ride-along up front (mommy) with duals.
Number of engines had nothing to do with the quality you assume for the landing. Your speculations are generally poorly informed. We DONT fly at the weight limit all the time, we keep a performance margin. Given that they were loaded ( patient on board ), they had already flown to sending (or scene), and were on the way to receiving, and had burned significant fuel, so would have been well below max gross weight. Also cool winter weather indicates good performance. If this was a single engine failure, they probably had performance to continue flight. I'm an EMS helicopter pilot and I HATE it when people think the pilot was "a hero" with nearly zero facts about the accident. Sadly, most of the time, we CAUSE the accident. The statistics bear this out. To address the peanut gallery, there is an EXCELLENT way to know what the landing surface is in darkness. NVGs and we all fly with them.
Fact is, we're all going to have to wait for the final NtSB report, that will take a year or more to come out, to find out (probably) what really happened here.
Chris let’s give the doctor medic a little respect here and grace if you feel is wrong ! I hear what your saying as I would argue some of the same points having said all that I honestly think his heart is in the rite place and was excited that all pobs lived just my two cents
Hi Chris. I agree with most of what you are saying. The heroism, at least in my opinion, is focused on the fact that the pilot had the ability to put the aircraft down safely and that the entire crew managed to get out, with the patient, relatively unharmed. But, I certainly agree 100% with you that the initial cause of the aircraft going down very well could have been the pilot's fault, or any other number of known, or unknown, reasons. You sound like an experienced HEMS pilot and I appreciate your feedback, sir.
I wonder if he was going to land in the field which looks like a more suitable spot, then decided to try and put it on the road. At night, under goggles, with an emergency and in that terrain it's very difficult. Hats off to pilot. Hopefully we'll find out reason for the forced landing.
These things have a comparably hi OEI which allows for safe flight with a single engine I am wondering if weather was a factor
Night plus bad weather = death. It seems not all pilots are being taught this in basic indoc anymore. Too bad. Accident rates seem ( anecdotally ) to be going back up.
Are you sure the pilot was aiming for the road? Because there’s a big open field right next to the road. Anyway I’m glad everyone is ok.
How does this channel not have more subscribers. I really don’t get it. Been binging videos and they’re outstanding.
Maybe trying to make Macon County Airport, maybe a chip light that turned south.
Life Force 6 would come to Mission Hospital a lot while I worked there as a Comm. Spec. Thankfully they all survived and were tracking so they could be found quickly. On the other side of Franklin to Waynesville we would loose tracking on FlightRadar24, AirNav Radar Box and ADS-B exchange due to the lack of receiver antennas in the area,, the frequency of most helicopter transponders and their lower altitude. prayers for the flight crew, pilot and patient.
ADS-B still requires towers unless the planes around them have in and out to act as a repeater. Overseas flight airliners have it to act as repeaters.
Way better pilot than most..
He was reading the logbook and flew it into the trees
I’m wondering if the pilot set down on the road behind the photographer and skidded down the road, the drone shot suggests that. Forward movement may have been the factor for choosing the road to prevent digging into the field and overturning.
I would assume he chose the road to land on as its easier for a ground ambulance to transport them to a hospital, certainly the patient. I’m not a pilot by any means but that’s what I would do. The field next to the road is virtually inadmissible to ground crews. Besides, the trees would shorten the rotorblades and might save lives in a roll over. I might be far fetched but I don’t fly these things.
Love the Bell 412 SP’s.
I live close to Erlanger. When they flew the 412s my house would shake when they flew over.
Be interesting to see the final report, if he was making a forced landing due to diminished power I wonder why he didn’t go for that big open field instead of the road. If you look to the left of the aircraft in the drone shot, you can see the tree branch that was struck. I wonder if that was the cause of the damage to the rotor blades in the tail. And interested fall from that height by that heavy of an aircraft plus the tree strike accounts for the damage that can be seen on the airframe. Not to take anything away from the pilot. Any landing like that is a good landing when everybody walks away from it. But as a helicopter pilot myself, I would’ve chose the big field without trees in it, as opposed to the road with trees on both sides and little chance of rotor clearance.
Great preliminary briefing. Look forward to hearing more
You do a phenom of a job sir. Tip 'o the cap.
Just wanted to indicate my agreement with your call on that bad ass pilot. Spot on.
We used to practice confined space autos back in the day and they always terrified me. When I say practice I don't mean full downs, obviously.
Also, BK117s are BAD ASS.
And the last thing....I notice and appreciate your depth of knowledge in your field and in aviation. And you really are doing the pilots and crews a great service by explaining the investigation process, and most importantly....you explain why accidents that the FAA will call pilot error, are not always a slam dunk "condemn the pilot" scenario that the general public may think.. It's really awesome of you to get that out there.
Thanks for your efforts!
The bad ass pilot was reading the logbook and flew it into the trees
That dashed line in the ADS-B indicates no data received. It is a gap in the data. Thus, the line is a simple straight line projection between the data points that were received. The dashed line is not indicative of an aircraft "holding their heading". For all we know the flight path was anything but straight during that span, the squirreliness could have commenced during that missing segment. Leave the review of flight data to real pilots, doc.
there is an open field just to the right of the road,, thank god o one when seriously injured.
That area is hard to gauge where a cliff is.
Looks like Hwy 74 but then they all do there.
What's really remarkable is traffic didn't blindly plough into the them on either side.
Very glad they didn't suffer life threatening injuries and were helped.
Thanks for sharing
No where near hwy 74, it was north of the airport in Burningtown
The road was Middle Burningtown Rd but I could not confirm where. The road isn't that long though. Great point about traffic coming around the corner. There were several witnesses to the crash and 911 calls were pretty clear. I wonder if the 911 callers were able to flag drivers on both sides?
@@TheDrMedic This was in my home town. I have E-911 and fire service experience and have been to the crash site. I can confirm that the big open field(s) you are referring are not suitable for landing. There are several hazards IE. Power lines and fences etc. The approximate coordinates of the crash are 35.2202347,-83.483615. Hope this helps you take a look at the area. Love your channel and you have a new subscriber. Would love to see you make a video with MAMA ( Mission Air Medical Ambulance ) Based in Asheville, NC and Franklin, NC. Keep up the great work Doc Medic.
I was at work in the Surgical Trauma ICU that 3 of the 4 people were inbound for that night. Thankfully they were all stable and did not require critical care admissions.
If he was in control, why didn't he land in that big open field right next to the road? That would have been a better option.
Besides, twin or not, helicopters have the ability to autorotate during an emergency engine out landing. That, when properly executed, is a controlled landing.
When we designed the Allison Model 250-40B engines for the Bell 430 twin back in the 90s, we used a FADEC system for automatic engine starting and torque and speed management. That also allowed us to provide an emergency One Engine Inoperative (OEI) rating of 820 HP for 30 seconds. Take off rating was 715 HP for five minutes. I redesigned the gear train to allow these ratings to be available. The previous take off ratings for the Series IV engines was 650 HP.
I haven't been involved in the rotorcraft business for a while, but I would bet that the EC135, being a newer helicopter than the 430, has an OEI rating as well.
If he was that great why didn't he auto rotated into the open field!? I believe he should buy a lottery ticket.very lucky crew.i don't believe he had much control. Very good pilot no doubt but he had help from above.my humble opinion.i respect other opinions.
The pilot really thread the needle on this one. We can't help but notice the wide open field on both side of those trees.
*Thank God they all walked away from this.*
I see what your saying, was thinking the same thing, then the second photo kinda looks like he was trying for a field but wound up on the road, With the trees on both sides of the road I doubt they could see that road at night. Thankfully they survived. We'll have to wait for the NTSB report to really know. For now Are thoughts and prayers are with them.
@@NEtrailrider1 Fields at night are black holes, but an unlit road is too. Probably just lucky.
Fields were the first thing I noticed - However, as John said, it is all a black hole at night and you would have never seen them. Their Nav GPS "should" have a road layer available to them. Not a sure thing but it beats the tops of the trees in that area...
As someone pointed out, the "field" is uphill from the road and there are marks suggestive that the helo touched down there and slid down to the road. So that "field" might be not nearly as flat or as friendly to an autorotation as it looks. Still a really good job.
Answer to how they all survived is "just barely" (awesome). Audience wishes them all the best. Cheers!
I am not a pilot nor mechanic, but it's my understanding that turbines are normally limited by egt, which will rapidly cause damage if they get too high. I know some military aircraft have "maximum power" and "military power" to allow you to go above 100% output, realizing that you're causing permanent damage. Do you think something like that might be warranted on dual engine helicopters? The second engine might only last for 5 minutes at 125% power, but if that makes the difference between landing in a field versus crashing on a road... Worth it.
Im certainly no air accident investigator, but the aircraft displayed a maximum barometric altitude of 5100' msl, and burningtown bald is 5115' msl. The previous segment was around 4900' msl. Night VFR in the mountains is not a forgiving activity.
So, it was a P2+, and despite it only having flown maybe 10(?) minutes before the accident, fully-loaded that aircraft should be able to fly on one engine to an airport to do a run-on landing. 10 minutes is about 45-50 lbs of fuel, but unless it was able to fuel at the hospital of origination, it would have even less than that. We train single-engine ops at MGTOW in the sim during our recurrent training and those aircraft will fly on one engine fully-loaded. They wont fly fast, and they cant hover OGE, but they will stay airborne.
I just saw the NTSB report. The narrative in the report describes the series of events.
"After departure, he dialed 5,500 feet into the autopilot and leveled off. He went to don the night vision goggles and noted that they were on the copilot seat on top of an aircraft logbook. He went to move the logbook to the pilot door compartment, where it was typically stowed for flight, and decided to check the flight times against the times that maintenance was due. At that point, he noticed the cloud ceiling was lowering and dialed in 5,000 feet into the autopilot, then 'went back heads down' to continue his review of the logbook," the report said. "Then, the flight nurse asked for an updated estimated time en route, and when the pilot looked up, he saw the helicopter was approaching a tree-covered peak." According to the report, the pilot then attempted to climb but the helicopter's tail boom struck several trees, separating the craft's vertical stabilizer from the tail boom. "The pilot subsequently performed a forced landing to a road, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage and tail boom," the report said. "The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation."
Ah man, the typical pilot error mistake? (At least from the videos I've watched on this channel) Well, great he reacted in a manner that resulted in no loss of life but the catch with just-enough-automation-to-be-dangerous is this situation becomes all too common.
Have you heard about the luckiest man in the world?? He got hit by an ambulance in front of the hospital!! How about the unluckiest man in the world? See description of the patient in this video! LoL he is very lucky I know things could have been so much worse off. If it is not your time to go, nothing can kill you!!
My neighbor just sold and retired from owning our local life-force ambulance/ems/our ambulance.. sad, but a blessing to have him as our neighbor nevertheless. I livein northwestern Pennsylvania on the border of Ohio and PA. Now the service is one of a company out of Erie. Not that excited, but by the grace of God I've never had to take a ride with them. 😊 take care yall
I'm not too far from you.hats off to tour neighbor.
Drop the "bad ass" label for any of these pilots and crews. You wouldn't want a "bad ass" airline pilot, nor would you want a "bad ass" brain surgeon. You have a fine program full a great info but these crews deserve professional recognition when they do well. Save the "bad ass" label for thugs and Hollywood heroes.
Would there be a fire suppression system the pilot could pull after touching down? Obviously I'm not a pilot myself, just wondering how this did not burn.
came here after seeing video on the new EC135 crash in FL, caused by some sort of inflight fire that ate away at structure and caused tail to start to fall off and helicopter crashed 1 dead a few survivors.
Just to clarify, the program I worked for, MAMA, Mountain Area Medical Airlift in Asheville, NC pioneered the use of NVGs for HEMS in 1994, becoming the first program in the US certified to do so. It makes a huge difference because as soon as we were outside the metro Asheville area, it gets very dark, very fast. Love your program by the way.
Holy cow! 1994?! That is wayyyyyyy before everyone else. When I first flew in 2009 we were JUST getting NVGs.
@@TheDrMedic Hi, I slightly misspoke: our Chief Pilot at the time, Dutch Fridd began the process around 1996, with final STC in 1999. But still the first in the nation. Looking at the crash photos, I also believe the pilot of LF6 had a serious mechanical problem because they were able to issue an emergency radio call just beforehand, and it also looked like they had nearly zero forward airspeed probably (I also hate to guess) due to an autorotation "we are putting this thing down right here, right now" type of emergency landing. CFIT almost always ends with a smoking hole in the ground, and with absolutely amazing skill, he sat it down rather heavily with some vertical G's. MAMA has 2 A/C: an EC 145 at Mission Hospital in Asheville and an EC 135 in Franklin, NC and has been in operation since 1986. I really enjoy your channel, you do very good work to help improve the safety of HEMS programs. Keep up the good work!
1999 is still super early. That's pretty cool. Yes, certainly a lot of possibilities that could have led up to this. MAMA sounds like an amazing service with some super cool aircraft! Thanks again for watching!
Thank you for doing what you do!!✌🏻💯💜
@@TheDrMedic MAMA is top-tier. Not as big as LifeForce, but hold to the same high standards.
well if you look at the weather at the time you will see overcast, scat rain in the area, low illum, and worsening weather throught the rest of the night. understand there was a distress call so maybe it wasnt weather related...the ec135 has a stellar maint record. More than anything the patient is stable, survived the transport and a helicopter crash so makes you wonder if they even should have flown...we all know we can get a box of apples to meet medical necessity
A box of apples!!! :-)
Any landing you can walk away from, and rebuild the aircraft . Acceptable landing ...
Looking at the picture... why did the pilot not land the aircraft in the big green field on the other side of the row of trees???
I flew medical helicopters for 13+ years. The absolute worst helicopter I flew was an EC-135. Under-powered and slow…give me a Bell 407 or Augusta A119 any day! Glad all survived! 😁
Great perspective from a pilot, @david! I think many medical crew absolutely would prefer the 135 (over those two models you mentioned) since there is more room in the back and most models use an actual patient stretcher instead of a sled system. You’re not the first pilot that has said the 135 is underpowered. Do you think that it is underpowered in every setup or just for HEMS?
Burringtown Height has 1500m = 4500 ft.
I've been enjoying the content a lot....but you have to ease off on all the annoying sounds throughout the video...the pop-ups with chimes make it very frustrating...especially when listening thru earbuds. You should at least mute those. Very annoying.
Thanks for the feedback :-)
WOW...everyone got to live to tell the craziest story of their lives! awesome!
5 people were on board.
You said 4 walked away.
What about the 5th?
More information: th-cam.com/video/MBMptqitqig/w-d-xo.html
Looks wet and foggy.
this is a great outcome but somehow i don't think you (thedoctormedic) have a clue what you are talking about there is no way that pilot wanted to land on that street when there was a huge field right there im sure he/she is a great pilot but they ended up on the road by chance the pilot had there hands full and did a awesome job no matter where they sat that heli down
Hi there. That huge field is actually a very high hill that, most likely, would not even be suitable to land in even in clear and sunny weather due to the steep slope. The pilot did first consider this field, but ultimately chose the road. Per the pilot, "Noticing the two-lane hard ball road briefly, I attempted to direct the aircraft there to execute a cut-gun autorotation."
Definitely a remarkable outcome and very good job by all those involved!! A little bit of luck mixed with some help from perhaps a guardian angel if you believe in that combined with skill from a badass pilot made it possible for all souls on board to go home and see thier loved ones once again!! The picture from the drone shot above looks as though they might have been aiming for the field just behind where they ended up coming to a stop at. I'm no pilot but if I had to set down in a hurry I would not choose the hard blacktop road surface with trees and power lines all around if I could avoid it. "Landing" next to the road so emergency personnel could reach us easier would be ideal but idk about smack in the middle like that. I think they ended up there but not on purpose to be honest. How about the patient in the back though!! Already medical problems just to crash on the way and get more most likely. Damnit! That sucks!!
What you and others like to describe as a "bad ass" pilot resulted in a "bad ass" accident which very likely could have been avoided by a normal ass competent pilot.
Kudos to the pilot. Night, trees all over, probably no lights on the ground, main rotors intact as much as they are, landing on a two lane road. Hard landing on the skids and everyone survived. This is the definition of threading the needle.
Yup, you're wrong on this one. Once in cruise, the aircraft should have been able to maintain level flight on the remaining engine if the other engine had quit (otherwise, what's the point of having 2 engines?). There seems to be open fields beside the road, so what was so exceptional putting it on a road that is very confined; it would have been much easier and safer landing in an open field? I think that the helo was not fully under control. Could have been a transmission problem, and I noticed that the speed increased significantly before it hit the ground. A double engine failure should have permitted an autorotation and a much softer landing. Sounds like a major component failure, and an urgency to put the thing down ASAP.
ding ding ding
Poster has a hard on for the pilot landing on the road when....
"There seems to be open fields beside the road, so what was so exceptional putting it on a road that is very confined; it would have been much easier and safer landing in an open field?"
Ding ding ding. I’m saying that, because of a possible major non-engine malfunction that was about to make it fall out of the sky, , the pilot didn’t have the time to choose a better place (in a nearby open field). Ding ding ding…..
Super Cringe on your pronunciation of "Nantahala".
Is the “EMS Success” details on your description just can’t see it? Cheers 😊
Oh goodness. Good catch. It’s there now. And here - www.EMSSuccess.org
EARINGS!:. Oh wait, HEADPHONES!
The excellent airbus air frame saved them....
You've talked about these incidents not having much news time allocated to them, and this is a good example because this is the first I've heard about this and it's where I live.
What salary do u take from your 501c?
Too much background, to many adjectives, too much "imagining", too much padding/waffle and not many facts. Sorry, not impressed ... I think this is the first video of yours that I have seen.
I think he was just excited every one lived !! He does an amazing job and typically he is all about the data !!
It’s only hours old, did you not notice that? It’s like a preliminary news release, all the analysis takes time. I’m sure he will revisit the incident when the investigation comes back with the results.
@paulmartin2166 Yeah, the media do it all the time, my YT feed gets loads of them every day, and they're 1½-2 minutes, tops, even other YTers do it, and can get their initial report completed in 4-6 minutes - if the news is a car wreck I don't need a history of the Chevrolet car company, if it's a story about groceries price inflation I don't need a corporate history of Kroger, _etc._
Need to buy Russian hellicopters
This type of flying is a tough business; I flew for the Army Guard in Massachusetts in a Medevac/Dustoff. To your comment about being first, actually, we were. The program was called "Military Assistance to Safety and Traffic" or (MAST). This was in the late 1970s and we were the MAST unit for New England. I was a medical crew member and I flew many medical missions with civilian patients. I also later became an air traffic controller in my 20's and I was at Bradley when Life Star crashed after hitting power lines. We just lost 5 in a medical crash of a Pilatus last week. Like I said, tough business.
Lucky, lucky folks! By the sheared off rotors, they obviously came down through the trees. Doing that and still being lucky enough to hit on all the impact-absorbing underside stuff is miraculous. This would have been a very different outcome had they hit on one of the aircraft’s sides.
It would be interesting if you did a segment on: "On May 9, two Cessna Citation 550s operated by air-ambulance operator Air Trek lost power-in both jets’ engines-due to fuel contamination by diesel exhaust fluid"
Hi John! I’ll take a look!
Was the wide open field not an option??
To much talk ,To little content.
Looks like the trees helped a lot!
So glad they all pulled through. The helicopter can be replaced, people cannot!
The first medevac team to have night vision goggles was the MAMA Mountain Area Medical Airlift based in Asheville Nc
Interesting. MAMA is also certainly an amazing program from what I've heard. I had only mentioned LIFE FORCE being one of the first to use NVGs as they make that claim on their site here lifeforceairmed.com/101/ I wonder if there is a way to clarify?
@@TheDrMedic MAMA started some time in 1999 "FAA approvals are granted on an individual basis and can be somewhat ad hoc. In 1999 Rocky Mountain Helicopters became the first air taxi company to earn FAA approval to use NVGs for its EMS helicopters. Dutch Fridd, an EMS pilot was the first civilian appointed as an NVG instructor by the Federal Aviation Administration in 1999." From an article called Dancing in the Dark, Smithsonian Air & Space magazine. I flew for MAMA from 2004 to 2008 in Franklin, NC and we used NVGs in our BO-105, BK-117 and EC-135 aircraft.
@@cbader7019 Hey Bader- those were the good 'ol days, huh? -AB
@@altonbradley717 That they were, Al!
@@cbader7019 Yep got the info from this video here th-cam.com/video/NasDePEl0Rc/w-d-xo.html
Do the paramedics have training for helicopter landing in US? When paramedic is sitting next to the pilot and they work as an extra eyes in the sky. I mean in case of emergency - when the pilot is sick/having cardiac arrest and cannot control the machine? In our country they work also as a navigators. Also pilots are helping with the patient as an extra hands sometimes.
Hi there. There actually are a few HEMS operators in the U.S. who are doing training for pilot incapacitation. But, I am not sure how in-depth they might go. While most pilots here in the states are not really required to help with the patient, most of them do if the opportunity presents itself, especially with loading and unloading.
The weather was rough, windy and rain. Not sure but during the time this occurred it was misting on the ground in Murphy, slight wind and about 50 degrees
You can thank the Formsprag freewheeling clutches if that was an OEI situation. 😁
Look in front of him. There is at least a 100 acre open field. And EMS HAS THE best landing search lights. He flew over the open field to crash in the tree's.
"He flew over the open field to crash in the tree's (sic)." Maybe, maybe not. I flew 2500+ missions in my time with MAMA out of nearby Asheville, NC. I was a Nurse/Medic who rode in many different ships: BO 105's, BK 117, AS 350, and finally the EC 135. It also helped that we had one of the best A&P mechanics in the industry- Karl Esbenshade, who was awarded the AAMS "Mechanic of the Year." I recall our pilots being very careful about trying to read the mind of another pilot who has to make the best decision under extreme duress. Sometimes when things go to hell in a hurry the only place to land is where the pilot is looking through the chin bubble.
8 minute video tops
To get that aircraft down and everyone survived is not only testament to the helicopter manufacturer but the pilots remarkable skill must have played a massive role in this accident… remarkably since most accidents don’t end well.. Top Bloke👍👍👍
It was PILOT ERROR. CONTROLLED FLIGHT INTO TERRAIN. Pilot was READING and crashed into trees!!!!!! NOT A HERO
A fully loaded helicopter at max weight limit losing power did you watch the whole story was never going to go well and all survived!!
I bet power lines
There was a big field? Surely that was a better spot. Great they managed to get it down though.
Due to the hills and terrain and just being so far from many receivers I suspect that the transponder just didn't have any available receivers during the time the dashed line appears because once it does reappear, the aircraft is exactly back where it should be. But, I do agree that there certainly could have been some squirreliness during that time span.
Lucky emergency landing. Good job controlling after tree contact. Guess he did not see the big field next to the road.
I suspect that the big open field is actually a heavily sloped hill.
If you've not read the EMS Safety Study published in 2006 by John's Hopkins it is worth a look. During the '80s and 90's, fatal EMS helicopter accidents were so common they had been compared to the dangers of the Alaskan fisheries. Many of the recommendations from the report are in place today but many are not. The report is a great read and it comes up with a simple Google search. Outstanding channel, keep them coming.
At one point in the 2000s, EMS helicopter was the most hazardous job in the US (depending on the metrics used).
A ton of changes were being made, but had not yet made it to the fleet.
NVGs, OCC, flight tracking, improved weather information fidelity, intense training including IIMC, and more capable aircraft have saved countless lives since then.
Stemi
Looking at the state of that wreck particularly the blades it looks very much like complete power loss, in which case where and how he put it down is indeed badass! I think with a single engine running he would have had better energy management perhaps fuel starvation - I am sure the trees softened the final impact. Well done to the PIC and crew and well done Airbus
What about the blades leads you to believe that there was an engine failure? In an autorotation, when done correctly, the rotor speed is the same (give or take) as when the engines are driving it.
Drop the "bad ass" nonsense. What was determined after NTSB investigation that the cause of the accident was related to pilot error. This mission flown properly by a normal ass pilot would have gotten crew and aircraft to the intended destination without this drama.
Lifetime dividens paid
It sounds like that crew deserves a start of life award.
What is a start of life award?
Ec135 is perfectly capable of OEI flight. Perhaps 1 failed and took out the other. It's happened.
Excellent info @bad05ford I hadn't considered one engine taking out the other. Good point!
Extremely rare, pretty sure it's never happened in the 135.
@Chris-bg8mk I'd have to look but I know of a 35 that had duel hp comp failure from overspeed. I know I've seen others where an engine grenades and takes out the others but can't say right now a 35.
Are you saying EMF or EMS?
18 minutes to say “I don’t know much.” Could have covered relevant info in 5’
You should update this!
The pilot was not paying attention and flew into the trees.
No hero