2 Helos Crash in Mineral Basin

[Percy Rideout]

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/177359...snowbird-utah/

Not something you see everyday.

Hope everybody is OK.

[Buster Highmen]

tfw and I saw that one day at Snowbird last month. We couldn't figure out what 2 black helis were doing landing there at the base of mineral.

[uglymoney]

Did they fly through that cloud and have blade icing? Seems odd they would both go down, but they were in formation and the picture shows a cloud.

[boardtodeath]

Buddy watched it happen and said that they disappeared into the cloud and he thinks one of them lost sight of the ground and rolled over, but it certainly could have been blade icing too. He said he watched part of a rotor fly through the air.

[Shredhead]

I bet they just flew into high terrain, in IMC.

[Westcoaster]

https://twitter.com/WasatchSnow/stat...filNua7hxyXZqA

second one appears to have hit the first. Spatial disorientation.

[spanky]

https://twitter.com/WasatchSnow/stat...filNua7hxyXZqA

second one appears to have hit the first. Spatial disorientation.

Fuck. Another view. Looks like a piece of the the rotor from the rear helicopter flies out of the cloud.

https://twitter.com/IM_Inman/status/1496222345194876928

[SWtahoeBCski]

Dang that guy had no idea how newsworthy that video was gonna be when he started recording
hope everyone is alright

[blazes_boylan]

Whoa....makes you wonder why they were flying over a ski area to begin with.

[boardtodeath]

They do training there all the time, I've seen them land there maybe 4 or 5 times over the last decade. Hopefully they don't do it anymore, that could have gone way worse.

[AK47bp]

They do training there all the time, I've seen them land there maybe 4 or 5 times over the last decade. Hopefully they don't do it anymore, that could have gone way worse.

Yes. Awfully close to groups of people and a chairlift.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[Name Redacted]

From the vid it looks like they simply got blinded by their rotor wash and maybe one tagged the other's tail rotor with their main rotor? Some articles say they both crashed. In one vid it looks like one of the helicopters lost tail rotor. Maybe a tree was involved? Tough to tell.

Either way, glad to hear no one was seriously injured. Crazy.

[Benny Profane]

Nice bluebird powder day.

[beaterdit]

From the vid it looks like they simply got blinded by their rotor wash and maybe one tagged the other's tail rotor with their main rotor? Some articles say they both crashed. In one vid it looks like one of the helicopters lost tail rotor. Maybe a tree was involved? Tough to tell.

Either way, glad to hear no one was seriously injured. Crazy.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CaU5do4F9sX/

According to this report the trailing chopper drifted and and overturned in the whiteout (probably dragged it's gear while drifting sideways), rotor pieces then hit the other chopper's tail mast (maybe knocking out tail rotor drive?) causing it to spin 360 degrees and set down hard. This is while the national guard on the ground were standing less than 50 feet away. It's obvious in some of the videos that rotor pieces flew about twice the distance to the Minnie bottom terminal and maze, thankfully in other directions. Extremely lucky no one was seriously injured let alone killed. Fuck.

Seems like they should have just aborted and gone around prepared for an instrument landing when they lost visual. Landing one at a time with fresh snow also just seems like common sense but what do I know.

[Dantheman]

Seems like they should have just aborted and gone around prepared for an instrument landing when they lost visual. Landing one at a time with fresh snow also just seems like common sense but what do I know.

Seems like several of the standard heuristic traps taught in avalanche safety were in play here, namely Familiarity, Consistency and Acceptance.

[beaterdit]

Seems like several of the standard heuristic traps taught in avalanche safety were in play here, namely Familiarity, Consistency and Acceptance.

Absolutely. Then I also saw this in the discussion:

I’ve got 20 years of training military pilots to fly in mountainous and heavy snow conditions. There are so many red flags on this formation approach that sent the hairs on my next standing on edge. You never make an approach to a valley in white out conditions with the #2 in the leaders six. The ground speed is too slow on final approach. You pick a marker and drive the helicopter down onto the marker (usually positioning by your boot in the chin window). The ground speed must not come below around 10kts other wise the snow cloud catches up with you and envelopes the cockpit. That’s when you lose all references and go into whiteout. Massive disorientation occurs and it’s impossible to maintain (manually) a hover. Emergency reaction in White Out are transfer to instruments, pull in power and go vertical to get out of the snow cloud. Which is why as the #2 you never sit in the leaders 6.

[ill-advised strategy]

Not directly related, but kind of an aside: in mid 2000s SLC we had several instances of local military blackhawks flying really irresponsibly around our fires, violating TFRs, buzzing around being dangerous and squirrely.
Seeing Blackhawks fucking up near Salt Lake reminds me of that.

[beaterdit]

Not directly related, but kind of an aside: in mid 2000s SLC we had several instances of local military blackhawks flying really irresponsibly around our fires, violating TFRs, buzzing around being dangerous and squirrely.
Seeing Blackhawks fucking up near Salt Lake reminds me of that.

Military or National Guard? Either way, seems in character for UT.

[Name Redacted]

Basically impossible to hover without visual reference or advanced systems so beaterdits posts check out.

I guess we can start bitching about it being a waste of our tax dollars now or something. But I’m sure this kinda shit happens all the time, just not in full view of a bunch of go pro wearing civilians.

[ill-advised strategy]

Military or National Guard? Either way, seems in character for UT.

My recollection was ntl guard, but that’s an unreliable memory.

[beaterdit]

Basically impossible to hover without visual reference or advanced systems so beaterdits posts check out.

I guess we can start bitching about it being a waste of our tax dollars now or something. But I’m sure this kinda shit happens all the time, just not in full view of a bunch of go pro wearing civilians.

I know they have to train, my beef is the location in proximity to dozens of civilians who didn't sign up for dangerous training, not to mention a passenger tramway. Also just seems like very poor decision making if not flying with regards to all that. I'm not a pilot so my take deserves a grain of salt but still. Seems like they have those advanced systems on those helis. There was some mention in that instagram thread that some newer pilots can be overly reliant on them.

My recollection was ntl guard, but that’s an unreliable memory.

Yep, like I said, either way, checks out.

[snapt]

This made me chuckle.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CaSh7wVO6kz/

[TBS]

Climber rescue gone bad Mt Hood 2002

The crew were not badly injured, even though the fuselage rolled over them

[Name Redacted]

I know they have to train, my beef is the location in proximity to dozens of civilians who didn't sign up for dangerous training, not to mention a passenger tramway. Also just seems like very poor decision making if not flying with regards to all that. I'm not a pilot so my take deserves a grain of salt but still. Seems like they have those advanced systems on those helis. There was some mention in that instagram thread that some newer pilots can be overly reliant on them.

Fully agree, military training in view of the public is just plain bad policy to begin with. Western UT is basically one big MOA/Restricted area but they choose to go fly around and land in a big, crowded resort on a holiday weekend to give everyone a show? What kind of decision making is going on there?

[MakersTeleMark]

Last week at the top of chair 5 at Vail I witnessed (as did many others) a C-7 fly completely sideways at least 500 ft. BELOW me through the back bowls. I could easily see into the cockpit. It was right there below me and was one of the most amazing sights of aviation I have ever witnessed.