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Posted on 05/11/2021 2:00:05 PM PDT by rey
It was attempting to refill its water bucket at a lake
Four were killed Monday May 10 after a helicopter crashed in Erhai Lake in Dali, Southwest China’s Yunnan Province. The Z-8X helicopter operated by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force had been assisting firefighters on the ground by dropping water with an external bucket. It crashed while attempting to refill at the lake.
Initially it was reported that the two pilots were killed and there were two missing crewmembers. After a search that involved 16 ships and more than 490 rescuers the crewmembers were found deceased about 16 hours later, very early Tuesday morning local time.
Videos show the aircraft start to slowly rotate or spin while it was a couple of hundred feet above the lake before the bucket was lowered into the water. The spin increased in speed and the helicopter descended, then there is an explosion that sends debris flying before the helicopter hits the water.
(Excerpt) Read more at wildfiretoday.com ...
Video and more story and links at the source.
It was probably carrying Wuhan Lab hard drives with all the gain of function research data.
You always gotta remember that helicopters don't fly, they just beat the air into submission. Four crew RIP.
Whatever issues I have with our enemies, the government of China, condolences to the brave firefighters. Takes guts anywhere, anytime to run (or fly) INTO the fire.
It wasn't on its way to rescue another tourist from a destroyed glass-bottomed bridge was it?
From yesterday:
"The tourist held on for 35 minutes while firefighters and police officers attempted to rescue him, and he eventually crawled to safety, Xinhua reported. Nobody was injured, but the tourist was moved to a hospital and is receiving counseling, the outlet said."
The poor guy had to crawl to safety. I bet I know what that "counseling" consisted of.
“Four crew RIP. “
Indeed.
Why would they need more than 2, maybe 3, crew?
“The Z-8 helicopter is a Chinese version of the French Aérospatiale SA 321 Super Frelon helicopter.”
It was made in China.
Tailrotor control cables, tailrotor drive gearbox, tailrotoor drive shaft...
...and a Pilot that tried to flight out of it, rather than just shut everything down.
Yeah.
"Shut up and we let you keep one of your kidneys."
ROFL, and that's probably exactly what happened.
I had the exact same thought you did...
“The Z-8 helicopter is a Chinese version of the French Aérospatiale SA 321 Super Frelon helicopter.”
That explains it. In the low-quality video I mistook it for a Chi-Com copy of the Soviet Mi-8. Except the rotors on the Mi-8 spin clockwise, backwards from most that are made in the west. And if the tail rotor had lost authority, the fuselage should have been spinning in the opposite direction, counter-clockwise.
But this one is spinning clockwise (viewed from above), which fits with loss of tail rotor effectiveness with a counter-clockwise turning rotor (Newton’s equal and opposite reaction).
The explosion was probably from the cable getting caught in the rotor head and sawing through the tail boom as it got reeled in.
Only two things can save you from LTE. Either a goodly amount of airspeed or a lack of altitude. If you have airspeed (or can get it), slipstreaming will keep the tail boom behind you. Then you keep up your airspeed up and land it like an airplane, a “running” landing. The trick is, you’ve got to get the airspeed with basically ZERO power applied to the rotor, because applying power (pitch) to the rotor only compounds the spinning problem.
But that’s if your only problem is that the tail rotor has stopped spinning or stalls (yes, it can happen, just from having the tail boom pointed in the wrong direction in a strong crosswind). If there’s a mechanical failure that jettisons the tail rotor gearbox, or you have tail boom separation, then you have a massive shift in center of gravity, which the only emergency procedure for is to put your head between your legs and kiss your butt good-bye.
It also can be saved if you’re at a low altitude hover (in ground effect). Airspeed or no, you just dump the collective (take all the pitch out of the main rotors), which dramatically reduces the torque between airframe and rotorhead, which also reduces the tendency to spin, then just simply brace for impact.
This is exactly why hovering at altitude (out of ground effect) is risky. If you lose tail rotor effectiveness, you’re too high to risk falling all that way at flat pitch (=no lift), but you’ve got to dump collective and get rid of as much torque as you can because the torque is what’s going to cause you to spin. If you don’t also lower the nose to gain some airspeed (so you get at least a little slipstreaming to reduce the rate of spin), it’s going to get ugly, which you can do, provided you have enough altitude. He screwed the pooch on that count. If he had cut loose the sling load and dumped collective at the first sign of LTE (before the spin was fully evolved) AND pushed the nose over, he might have been able to regain control. He had three good hard turns and never cut loose the sling load.
My hunch is he either was an inexperienced or ill-trained slingload operator.
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