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Posted: 7/6/2016 4:42:33 PM EDT
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Article states that witnesses saw the chopper hit power lines and then exploded.
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View Quote That thing looks like Airwolf. |
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Awful
Is that aircraft in development, or was it a post-maintenance test flight, or ? Pardon my ignorance; I don't know enough about rotary wing |
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I haven't heard of that one. Is it a replacement for the 214ST for flying offshore or going after the corporate market?
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High speed impact, fly by wire aircraft in development. Data recorders will tell this story.
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Quoted:
Can anyone find the high tension wires using a google satellite image? http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/dt21vq/picture87994417/ALTERNATES/FREE_640/Helicopter%20crash%20site View Quote Not seeing any large powerlines. Just one normal sized residential line near some houses. EDIT: Just found some a little north of that location. https://www.google.com/maps/place/32%C2%B015'50.9%22N+96%C2%B054'38.7%22W/@32.2641375,-96.9129181,1085m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d32.264133!4d-96.910741 |
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Quoted:
Not seeing any large powerlines. Just one normal sized residential line near some houses. EDIT: Just found some a little north of that location. https://www.google.com/maps/place/32%C2%B015'50.9%22N+96%C2%B054'38.7%22W/@32.2641375,-96.9129181,1085m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d32.264133!4d-96.910741 View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
Quoted:
Can anyone find the high tension wires using a google satellite image? http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/dt21vq/picture87994417/ALTERNATES/FREE_640/Helicopter%20crash%20site Not seeing any large powerlines. Just one normal sized residential line near some houses. EDIT: Just found some a little north of that location. https://www.google.com/maps/place/32%C2%B015'50.9%22N+96%C2%B054'38.7%22W/@32.2641375,-96.9129181,1085m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d32.264133!4d-96.910741 look just west of Maypearl, crossing 66 and 916. You'll see the right-of-way cut thought the growth. heading north-south. |
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shit... yeah, that looks like a crater
525 is almost as sexy as the 222..just pregnant wire strike!? wtf...non-local test pilot? |
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During an exciting part of my misspent youth I was a reporter for the Temple (Texas) Daily Telegram. I was sent out to cover the crash of a homemade, Piper Cub. Flying close to the earth, pilot hit a high tension line very close to the TV station. Big ol' DPS trooper had me squeeze into the wreck to take a picture of the deceased.
Yuck. Traumatic brain injury. |
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I was just out there last weekend for a party. Sister-in-law lives out that way. Whole lot of nothing. Was he texting and flying?
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Quoted:
Can anyone find the high tension wires using a google satellite image? http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/dt21vq/picture87994417/ALTERNATES/FREE_640/Helicopter%20crash%20site View Quote VFRMaps.com shows 3 major power lines in the general area. Looking on Google Maps there is one that crosses Bell Branch Rd about 1/4 mile from the intersection with FM876. That seems to be the nearest reference point to the crash site in the article. I'll see if I can get it to link. http://www.google.com/maps/place/Dallas,+TX/@32.2441578,-96.9233912,76m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x864c19f77b45974b:0xb9ec9ba4f647678f!8m2!3d32.7688005!4d-96.7895508 |
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But it's flat to rolling terrain, mostly open area. View Quote Possibly trying to make an emergency landing and hit the wires? I expect we'll have to wait for the transcripts of the cockpit audio to determine why they were so low. But in that open field near a road I can easily see a mechanical problem causing them to try and land and catch a wire on an unmarked power line. |
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That orange 525 was the first one, built here in Amarillo. It's been flying about a year (estimate frm memory.) N525TA.
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Quoted:
Possibly trying to make an emergency landing and hit the wires? I expegct we'll have to wait for the transcripts of the cockpit audio to determine why they were so low. But in that open field near a road I can easily see a mechanical problem causing them to try and land and catch a wire on an unmarked power line. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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But it's flat to rolling terrain, mostly open area. Possibly trying to make an emergency landing and hit the wires? I expegct we'll have to wait for the transcripts of the cockpit audio to determine why they were so low. But in that open field near a road I can easily see a mechanical problem causing them to try and land and catch a wire on an unmarked power line. Yeah, we'll see. Bell has been flying test aircraft down there for decades. I would think that every obstacle was known and briefed, but things happen. I was at Ft. Hood as a civilian in 2004-5 and the 4ID 2nd in command died when his helicopter hit a radio tower guywire in Waco. It was an overcast day, but the pilots were experienced and had flown that way many times on the way to the depot in Texarkana. sometimes everything just goes bad. There was a bell 407 chase aircraft, so eyewitness reports will be forthcoming. |
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Damn. Hopefully they went quick upon impact and explosion, and not burning to death.
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well that sucks, a lot. I was there for the unvailing, and now know people who build it......
why did they hit the powerline? |
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Quoted: Can anyone find the high tension wires using a google satellite image? http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/dt21vq/picture87994417/ALTERNATES/FREE_640/Helicopter%20crash%20site View Quote Crash site is right under some. |
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Crash site is right under some. <a href="http://s1282.photobucket.com/user/pavelow164781/media/E95EC6A4-B9EC-4FC4-9B2C-8776F5E80E7C_zpscfga4ep4.jpg.html" target="_blank">http://i1282.photobucket.com/albums/a531/pavelow164781/E95EC6A4-B9EC-4FC4-9B2C-8776F5E80E7C_zpscfga4ep4.jpg</a> View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
Quoted:
Can anyone find the high tension wires using a google satellite image? http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/dt21vq/picture87994417/ALTERNATES/FREE_640/Helicopter%20crash%20site Crash site is right under some. <a href="http://s1282.photobucket.com/user/pavelow164781/media/E95EC6A4-B9EC-4FC4-9B2C-8776F5E80E7C_zpscfga4ep4.jpg.html" target="_blank">http://i1282.photobucket.com/albums/a531/pavelow164781/E95EC6A4-B9EC-4FC4-9B2C-8776F5E80E7C_zpscfga4ep4.jpg</a> Looking at that pic, I cannot imagine they tried to land there unless they had no other choice. Water, trees, powerlines. |
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From the comments
The WFAA report says DPS has determined that the helicopter DID NOT strike the power line, so the only thing remaining is a catastrophic structural failure. This would have meant little or no chance for a non-fatal outcome. View Quote |
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Wire strike, maybe? The only one I ever witnessed was a Bell 47 carrying Santa Claus on approach to a shopping center. Hooked the wire with the skids. Flipped frontwards totally upside-down and the rotor pulled into the ground. Killed the pilot and Santa Claus....in front of half the kids in town. Todays crash was just south of ETTS, the range I shoot at. RIP Aircrew. |
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lots of other things can bring a helo down other than catastrophic structural failure. That's actually a pretty slim option.
let's just say structural is already being looked at, as we speak, down to the sub assembly level. this bird is mostly composite. |
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Just keep in mind, if you think the media is ignorant about guns... how much do they know about helicopters?
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The aircraft came down in a field along Farm-to-Market Road 876 north of Chambers Creek, northwest of Italy, said Trooper Lonny Haschel of the Texas Department of Public Safety and the FAA. It had been performing tests at Bell's Xworx facility in Arlington. It had been followed by a 'chase' helicopter from Bell as well - standard practice, the company said. That helicopter did not crash. Aerial footage after the crash, which occurred at 11.45am Wednesday, shows that the 525 was completely obliterated, with only charred grass and scattered debris from the orange helicopter left. Most of the debris was centered around the crash site, but some pieces had been flung hundreds of feet away - including the boom (the long 'tail' of the helicopter), which was found 1,500 feet from the main body of the wreckage. It was initially speculated that the helicopter had struck a nearby pole before crashing, because the pole's tip looks like it has been burned. But an investigation by Brazos Electric Company cocncluded that the pole had not been hit - nor had there been a power outage as a result of the crash. Another witness, who works at a nearby body shop and asked not to be named, said that he heard 'two booms' before the helicopter went down. 'There was nothing the pilot could do,' he said. A Bell Helicopter statement said the company was conducting developmental flight test operations from its Arlington facility when the helicopter crashed. 'Boom': Another witness, who works nearby, said that he heard two 'booms' before the crash, and that 'there was nothing the pilot could do'. The 525 was unveiled in 2012, and is expected to go on sale in 2017. This is a devastating day for Bell Helicopter,' the company said. 'We are deeply saddened by the loss of our teammates and have reached out to their families to offer our support. 'Bell Helicopter representatives are onsite to assess the situation and provide any assistance to local, state, and federal authorities. 'We will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available.' The 525 Relentless was unveiled in 2012. The long-range helicopter can carry up to 20 passengers and has a maximum range of 656 miles - useful for transporting people to oil rigs. Bell told News 8 the 525 first began test flights in 2015, and that this was the first time one had crashed. The aircraft is set to be certified for commercial sale in 2017. Rotor: One of the chopper's rotors (pictured) was also flung from the explosion. This is the first time a 525, which has two engines and can carry up to 20 passengers, has crashed. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3677667/Bell-Helicopter-chopper-2-board-crashes-Texas.html |
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Prayers to the pilot's families. Also to the engineers who designed it. I know I would be sick thinking somehow my design was responsible. |
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That sucks. Hard.
I crewed periodically on an OH-58 as a qualified aerial observer (flying FO). Just me and the pilot on my right. Lots of NOE at Campbell. Power lines are the worst fear. I don't think I ever stopped scanning left unless the rounds were incoming. RIP boys. |
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The display bird shows a line cutter installed while the test article didn't appear to have one installed.
Line cutter = Wire Strike Protection System Helo line cutter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm6MwIdY4TA |
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"Initial reports that the helicopter struck a utility pole turned out to be false, and there were no power outages in the area."
The cause of the crash has yet to be determined. Haschel said federal authorities would head up the investigation. Pieces of the orange helicopter are strewn across the crash site, where the grass is burned. The boom, which connects the tail to the body of the helicopter, was found 1,500 feet away from the crash site, according to NBC5. The helicopter was one of three that was flying in formation at the time and was the only one that crashed, reports Jason Whitely of WFAA-TV (Channel 8). Much of the helicopter's debris was localized to the crash site, though parts of the helicopter were spotted hundreds of feet away, including a section of the helicopter's boom located approximately 1,500 feet to the southeast. Aviation experts tell NBC 5 that widespread of a debris field can indicate that the helicopter started breaking up in the air before the crash. Witnesses on scene said it looked that way to them. Investigators will be looking closely at that possibility. The helicopter was still in the testing phase and used a new kind of rotor system. Investigators will likely be looking into whether there was a problem with that system as well. Neighbors say they see helicopters running training exercises over open fields in the area nearly every day. But they've never seen anything like this. "It’s terrible, tragic for people to lose their life like this," said neighbor Cecil Randall. "But I guess it’s a job that they have to do and it’s very dangerous, especially on a windy day like today. The wind makes a helicopter do some crazy stuff.” Investigators will be looking into whether the wind factored into the accident. They planned to stay on scene throughout Wednesday night looking for clues. http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/DPS-Investigating-Helicopter-Crash-in-Ellis-County-385722821.html |
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