Helicopters: H - 1 H - 53 H - 60

Flying Safety, Jan-Feb, 2002 by Maj Nate Kelsey

My first helicopter instructor pilot used to say: "Helicopters fly by beating the air into submission." While this may not be entirely true, the safety record of our rotary wing bro's is hard to beat. With an FY01 Class A mishap rate of 0.00 per 100,000 hours, our fleet of helos did an admirable job of hovering towards an incredible safety record.

The Safety Center puts together this end-of-fiscal-year edition to prevent a repeat of a particular mishap. We do that by getting the word out. Spreading "lessons learned" should pay dividends in mishap prevention by using someone else's unfortunate experience. I'm confident, however, that there's some "nugget," or some "old head" who'll think of new and exciting ways to break or bend Uncle Sam's inventory. I say "nugget" because they don't have any experience to speak of, so they don't recognize when they're getting into a square corner. The "old head" because of that "Been there, done that" attitude. The only difference between the two is the "old head" will recognize his mistake when he does it again. This is sometimes referred to as "experience." Maybe this article will take the place of personal experience and you'll recognize a bad situation about to turn worse, before you get "up against the wall."

The only events that could be loosely termed a trend would be smoke and fumes in the cockpit; there were three of these. Here are some other notable mishaps which occurred during the last fiscal year.

Mishap Fall

The mishap flight engineer (MFE) was accomplishing a routine preflight inspection on top of the helicopter. Weather at the time of the mishap was light snow mixed with rain. While stepping from the forward hydraulic cowling area to right engine intake area, the MFE's feet slipped, causing him to fal the ground. He broke a wrist in several places and was unable to fly for almost three months.

H-53M

This incident occurred while inserting a team at night into an LZ in white-out conditions. Landing zone weather was 500 ft ceiling with two miles visibility and about two to three inches of fresh snow on the ground. A slight upslope was in the portion of the LZ where the aircraft landed. Onboard sensors had ID'd several obstacles in the LZ, including the mishap fence posts. The mishap aircrew attempted to fly the aircraft clear of the obstacles while on final approach. Just prior to touchdown, the aircraft entered white-out conditions, as expected. The aircraft commander continued the approach to the ground and inadvertently contacted the tops of three fence posts.

Torque was maintained until the aircraft was stabilized and safely on the ground. The crew inspected the outside and underbelly of the aircraft and noticed some damage. The landing gear was visually inspected prior to takeoff and was deemed fit for flight. During the RTB, the gear was left down. The helo returned without incident. A visual inspection by another aircraft revealed no significant damage. The helicopter hover-taxied to a safe spot and was shut down without incident. The crew followed all necessary procedures for conducting a white-out landing. Although the crew knew of the obstacles and lost sight on short final, they did attempt to maneuver the aircraft to avoid the fence prior to entering white-out conditions, and they thought they had cleared the fence. At no time did the crew feel unsafe during the approach, so no go-around was executed.

MH-53J

At some point during the sortie, the .50 caliber link ejection chute came out of the left window. Links from the chute were ejected into the slipstream in front of the left sponson, peppering it. Some links migrated along the left fuselage, leaving small scratches. One link flew into the tail rotor, causing damage beyond repair limits. It is believed that the same link was thrown into a main rotor blade, causing damage beyond repair limits. The damage was not noticed during the flight.

Combat Rubber Raiding Craft (CRRC)

The mishap aircraft departed home station to a local water drop zone. During CRRC deployment, the nose of the craft was caught up by the rotor wash and struck the tail rotor. Damage to the rotor caused severe vibration, forcing the crew to make an emergency landing at a nearby landing site. Debris struck one of the deploying special tactics squadron (STS) airmen in the arm, causing substantial injury. The airman was transported to the local hospital and received medical treatment.

As Safety Center reps, we are constantly asking "Why?" Trying to get to the root cause of an accident is not a simple matter. So get in the habit of asking yourself when you're about to do something unfamiliar, "What would the Board President say?" Then follow up with "Why did they do that?" It will shed some light on why we do the things we do.

I'll leave you with a Zen quote: "Talk doesn't cook rice."