ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 231694
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| Date: | Wednesday 25 December 2019 |
| Time: | 17:13 LT |
| Type: |  Bell 407 |
| Owner/operator: | Survival Flight Inc |
| Registration: | N663SF |
| MSN: | 53438 |
| Year of manufacture: | 2000 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 2543 hours |
| Engine model: | Rolls Royce M250-C47B |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 3 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Headland Municipal Airport (0J6), AL -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Ambulance |
| Departure airport: | Headland Municipal Airportm, AL (0J6) |
| Headland Municipal Airportm, AL (0J6) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
According to the flight nurse and paramedic, the flight was normal until the helicopter suddenly rolled to the left as they approached the helipad during landing. The pilot made no attempt to correct the roll, and the helicopter rolled onto its side and the main rotors contacted the ground. The pilot was immediately observed to be unresponsive and not breathing, and the flight nurse and paramedic began CPR as quickly as they could extricate the pilot from the cockpit.
Autopsy of the pilot revealed severe coronary artery disease that placed him at significant increased risk for sudden death from an acute coronary event. Given the pilot's sudden inability to pilot the helicopter safely, the recognition by certified medical personnel that he was unresponsive and not breathing immediately following the accident, and the fact that he did not suffer enough blunt force trauma to have caused immediate cardiac arrest, it is most likely that the accident occurred because the pilot became incapacitated from an acute cardiac event.
Probable Cause: Pilot incapacitation by a sudden cardiac event related to severe coronary artery disease, which resulted in a loss of helicopter control.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
NTSB ERA20FA056
FAA register: https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=N663SF
Location
Media:
Survival Flight Medical Helicopter Crashes at Headland Airport https://t.co/gmKgp2Jqwu
— Troy Shaffer (@flightsafetynet) December 26, 2019
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 26-Dec-2019 07:12 | gerard57 | Added |
| 26-Dec-2019 07:49 | RobertMB | Updated [Aircraft type, Registration, Operator, Location, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 26-Dec-2019 11:04 | Iceman 29 | Updated [Time, Embed code, Narrative] |
| 26-Dec-2019 15:08 | harro | Updated [Registration, Cn, Source, Embed code, Damage] |
| 26-Dec-2019 15:34 | RobertMB | Updated [Time, Registration, Source, Narrative] |
| 26-Dec-2019 16:18 | Aerossurance | Updated [Narrative] |
| 26-Dec-2019 22:05 | Geno | Updated [Nature, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 01-Jul-2022 14:48 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Time, Total fatalities, Other fatalities, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, Accident report] |
| 01-Jul-2022 14:51 | harro | Updated [Total fatalities, Other fatalities, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
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