A139, vicinity Sky Shuttle Heliport Hong Kong China, 2010

A139, vicinity Sky Shuttle Heliport Hong Kong China, 2010

Summary

On 3 July 2010, an AW139 helicopter was climbing through 350 feet over Victoria Harbour Hong Kong just after takeoff when the tail rotor detached. A transition to autorotation was accomplished and a controlled ditching followed. All occupants were rescued but some sustained minor injuries. The failure was attributed entirely to manufacturing defects but no corrective manufacturer or regulatory action was taken until two similar accidents had occurred in Qatar (non-fatal) and Brazil (fatal) the following year and two interim Safety Recommendations were issued from this Investigation after which a comprehensive review of the manufacturing process led to numerous changes.

Description

On 3 July 2010, an Agusta Westland AW 139 (B-MHJ) being operated by East Asia Airlines, on a scheduled Visual Flight Rules (VFR) passenger flight (EA206A) from Hong Kong to Macao was climbing through approximately 350 feet amsl over Victoria Harbour in day Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) two minutes after take off when the tail rotor assembly fell off. The crew declared a MAYDAY and accomplished a successful ditching. Three of the 11 passengers sustained minor injuries, the others and the two pilots were uninjured.

The helicopter floating in Victoria Harbour (Reproduced from the Official Report)

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Civil Aviation Department of the Government of the Hong Kong SAR. Recorded data relevant to the Investigation was recovered from the Multi-Purpose Flight Recorder (MPFR) and the 2 hour Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR).

It was noted that the two pilots both held ATPL(H) licences issued by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Macao SAR and had considerable helicopter experience although relatively little of this had been on the AW139, the 45 year old commander, who had been PF for the accident flight, having only 377 hours on type.

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