Fresh, contradictory evidence gathered by international accident investigators has surfaced after a fatal and controversial crash involving a firefighting helicopter last year.
|||Cape Town - Fresh, contradictory evidence gathered by international accident investigators has surfaced after a fatal and controversial crash involving a firefighting helicopter near Cape Point last year.
The information may prove some of the national aviation authority’s findings after the crash were inaccurate, including the aircraft and others used for firefighting, were poorly maintained.
Forest Fire Association Aviation, which operates the helicopters, has now petitioned the SA Civil Aviation Authority to reopen its investigation.
Seasoned pilot Hendrik “Bees” Marais died when he tried to make a forced landing while fighting a fire at Cape Point on March 8 last year.
The civil aviation authority subsequently released a de-tailed report on its investigation. But this week Trevor Abrahams, a former head of the authority and chairman of Forest Fire Association Aviation, said the probe should be reopened. It had not formed part of the authority’s report, he confirmed.
“We’ve found eyewitness accounts of the event prior to the accident,” he said, adding it “refutes some of what they found”. Abrahams did not want to provide further details of the evidence, which he said would be handed to the civil aviation authority on Friday.
He wanted investigators at the authority to go over the information before it was made public.
This week civil aviation authority spokesman Kabelo Ledwaba said it had not yet received the evidence, but urged Forest Fire Association Aviation to hand it over “for evaluation and consideration”.
According to a section of the Civil Aviation Regulations, “any interested person who feels aggrieved by the findings of an investigation may appeal against such findings to the minister (of transport), within 60 days after the publication of such findings”.
After the civil aviation authority’s investigation report was first released, Forest Fire Association Aviation issued a statement saying it it would respond.
“As part of this initiative, we engaged the services of international accident investigators with specific Huey helicopter experience, from the US and New Zealand, to participate in an aviation safety review of our aviation operations,” it said. “The aviation review uncovered significant new information, which did not form part of the (civil aviation authority) investigation report.”
The helicopters, former military aircraft used to fight vegetation fires and which are used by government job-creation initiative Working on Fire, have been in the spotlight for nearly a year.
Weeks after Marais’s death, pilot Darrell Rea and firefighting helicopter safety leader Justin Visagie died in Bain’s Kloof, when they tried to make an emergency landing while battling a blaze.
In July, the civil aviation authority announced it had temporarily suspended 26 of Working on Fire’s air operating certificates after identifying maintenance problems.
The authority’s findings on Marais’s accident said he had taken off from Newlands with a Bambi bucket, used to carry water, suspended below the helicopter. On his way to the fire he reported that he had a “tail chip detector warning”.
Marais was advised to land. He planned to, but moments later made a “mayday” distress call. “The helicopter was observed to rotate in a clockwise direction, making abrupt movements,” the report said.
Although it could not be proven, it was believed the bucket being positioned outside Marais’s helicopter could have affected the handling of the helicopter.
The report found the helicopter Marais was flying was 48 years old and identified several maintenance shortcomings. “Failure of the maintenance organisation and maintenance personnel to follow required maintenance procedures... thereby not detecting the deteriorating condition of the aircraft control cable timeously… should be regarded as a significant contributory factor to this accident.”
caryn.dolley@inl.co.za
Weekend Argus
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