Collision with terrain involving Robinson R44, VH-IDW

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Collision with terrain involving Robinson R44, VH-IDW King River, Northern Territory, on 28 February 2022 ATSB Transport Safety Report Aviation Occurrence Investigation AO-2022-009 Preliminary – 19 April 2022 Released in accordance with section 25 of the Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003 Publishing information Published by: Australian Transport Safety Bureau Postal address: PO Box 967, Civic Square ACT 2608 Office: 12 Moore Street Canberra, ACT 2601 Telephone: 1800 020 616, from overseas +61 2 6257 2463 Accident and incident notification: 1800 011 034 (24 hours) Email: atsbinfo@atsb.gov.au Website: www.atsb.gov.au © Commonwealth of Australia 2022 Ownership of intellectual property rights in this publication Unless otherwise noted, copyright (and any other intellectual property rights, if any) in this publication is owned by the Commonwealth of Australia. 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Addendum Page Change Date ATSB – AO-2022-009 › 1 ‹ Preliminary report The occurrence On 28 February 2022, the crew of three Robinson R44 helicopters were preparing to conduct crocodile egg collection in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. The egg collection was conducted under contract to Wildlife Harvesting (Northern Territory). Each helicopter had two crewmembers – one nominated pilot in command and one egg collector. Two of the helicopters were operating under a Civil Aviation Safety Authority Instrument. The instrument authorised the pilot in command to operate with a person outside the aircraft in a harness system attached to the helicopter for the purpose of collecting crocodile eggs. The authorisation was subject to a number of conditions, which included fitment of equipment under an Engineering Order or a Supplemental Type Certificate and an associated flight manual supplement. The two helicopters used for sling operations were fitted with dual external cargo hooks, which attached to rings on a 100 ft long line. This enabled the egg collector (‘sling person’) to be slung 100 ft below the helicopter to access the nests. The line could be released by the pilot via a quick release system for the cargo hooks. The cargo hooks were fitted with primary and back-up dual quick release systems, to reduce the likelihood of inadvertent pilot activation and provide redundancy in case of failure. One of those two helicopters was an R44 Raven II, registered VH- IDW, operated by Helibrook Pty Ltd. The third helicopter was primarily to be used for transporting eggs, although both its pilot and collector also collected eggs on foot and wore a harness so they could be slung under either of the other two helicopters as needed. At about 0703 Central Standard Time,1 the three helicopters departed from Noonamah, for a 90- minute flight to a site where fuel drums had been pre-positioned en route to the collect sites. Fuel was available at Noonamah and the drum site, however, there were no accurate records of fuel uplift for VH-IDW. The helicopters departed from the drum site at about 0830 and tracked to the King River staging area, where the crews prepared to commence egg collection operations (Figure 1). Recorded OzRunways2 data for two of the helicopters recorded their arrival at the staging area at 0850. The pilot and sling person of VH-IDW planned to start the egg collection from a nest located close to the staging area. At about 0900, the other two helicopters departed the staging area for their crew to commence collecting eggs about 12 km to the north-east. Data recorded for the egg collection showed that the crew of those two helicopters collected eggs from nine nests between 0911 and 1014. By 1014, the four crewmembers operating to the north-east became concerned that they had not heard any radio communications from the crew of VH-IDW since departing the staging area. As a result, one of the pilots elected to return to the area they expected VH-IDW to be operating in. At 1036, the pilot located the wreckage of VH-IDW and landed near the accident site (Figure 1). They found the helicopter substantially damaged having collided with trees and terrain. The sling person was deceased, and the pilot had sustained serious injuries. After providing reassurance to the 1 Central Standard Time (CST): Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) + 9.5 hours 2 OzRunways is an electronic flight bag application that provides navigation, weather, area briefings and other flight information. It provides the option for live flight tracking by transmitting the device’s position and altitude. This preliminary report details factual information established in the investigation’s early evidence collection phase, and has been prepared to provide timely information to the industry and public. Preliminary reports contain no analysis or findings, which will be detailed in the investigation’s final report. The information contained in this preliminary report is released in accordance with section 25 of the Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003. ATSB – AO-2022-009 › 2 ‹ pilot of VH-IDW, the other pilot returned to their helicopter and took off briefly to get mobile