Risky Helicopter Ops

[pelmet]

From TSB...

C-GHFL, a West Coast Helicopters Limited Hughes 369D departed a logging camp near Stafford
Lake, BC, on a visual flight rules flight with the pilot and 2 forest-harvesting engineers on board.

The flight was conducted to drop off the engineers to do a forest survey. The pilot attempted a toe-
in landing on a steep slope within a recent landslide area. The pilot placed the toe of the left skid

on the terrain then began to pivot the helicopter to the right to place the toe of the right skid on the
terrain. During the maneuver, the helicopter suddenly dropped a few inches, and the main rotor
blades struck a large rock. The helicopter began to vibrate excessively. The pilot ordered an
evacuation and very shortly thereafter, control of the helicopter was lost. One engineer was ejected
from the helicopter's front right seat, and the other was thrown from the left skid on which he was
standing. The helicopter subsequently rolled down the slope and broke apart. The main cabin
section came to a rest about 300 feet down the slope from the toe-in site. The engineer who had
occupied the front right seat was seriously injured. The other engineer and the pilot sustained fatal
injuries. The helicopter was destroyed. The emergency locator transmitter activated. Search and
rescue arrived on scene approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes after the accident and extracted the
survivor and recovered the pilot and the other engineer.