Bell 407 Has Hard Landing In Texas
AEL Bell 407 hard landing in Decatur, Texas - source: nbcdfw.com
A Bell 407 helicopter operated by AEL (Air Evac Lifeteam) had a hard landing incident in Decatur, Texas yesterday. The aircraft, operating in an HEMS role, was taking off from the Wise Regional Hospital when at an altitude of about 50 feet, it lost power. There have been reports that it was smoking at that point but are unconfirmed. The helicopter came down hard with three people on board causing injuries. Two were flown by Careflight to a Fort Worth hospital and the third was treated there at Wise Regional.
It looks like they were able to autorotate back to the pad though at least. Great job by the pilot and unfortunate they weren’t flying a twin. I wonder if that new NASA technology would have helped.
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AEL Bell 407 hard landing in Decatur, Texas - source: nbcdfw.com
Update: I’ve heard it was AEL 68. Still looking for a tail number though. It was formerly Lifeflight 1 but is now an AEL operated aircraft. (thanks RotorGuy for the clarification!)
Update 2: It is N600CE – 1999 Bell 407 (thanks DFW for the tip!)
Update 3: The prelim report is now available here. Not much information though.
The second engine usually only provides enough power to lift the weight of the second engine. Even if it provided just a little more, where was he going to go in a “controlled decent?” Getting it back to the pad is a GOOD JOB. No matter what aircraft we fly, there’s a time in the takeoff and landing where we have to go through the dead-man’s curve. I don’t work for that company, but what happened to that pilot goes through my mind at every takoff and landing — Kudos to the pilot. Everyone else on board owes him for their life……….big time! I would like to meet him just to learn something about what he did, and I’ve been doing this for 39 years. It may be a while before he can gather his own thoughts to actually figure out what he did — there’s a lot of instinct in this.
I cannot agree more with the “good job” sentiment.
Texas Lifestar has been owned by AEL for quite a while now, it was just a couple weeks ago that the names were combined.
As for the pilot, I agree, good job.
The “dead mans” curve, more correctly named, the HV (height velocity) curve, that only come into effect durring cruise and takeoff, there is no HV curtve for the landing profile as the blades already have a reduced amount of pitch. The HV curve is designed to test the ability to autorotate during high power manuevers only.