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Drone may have caused helicopter to crash land in South Carolina

by 19 Comments

After a drone collides with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter just last month, we’re already hearing about another incident involving a helicopter and a drone. This time, though, the helicopter was forced to make a crash landing. The incident is currently being investigated and if proven to be true would mark the first drone-related crash of an aircraft in the USA.

According to Bloomberg, during a flight last week involving a student pilot and instructor, a drone was spotted in front of their Robinson R22 helicopter during a flight. This forced the instructor to take over and take corrective action to avoid the collision, hitting the tail of the helicopter into a tree and causing a crash landing.

The NTSB is aware of the pilot’s report that he was maneuvering to avoid a drone, but the NTSB has not yet been able to independently verify that information.

– Chris O’Neil, National Transportation Safety Board

According to reports, an FAA statement says the Robinson R22 helicopter went down at around 2pm, but they did not confirm the whether or not a drone may have been involved.

According to a police report of the incident, the student was practising low-altitude hovering in a remote area. As she turned the aircraft around, a small white drone appeared. It was at this point the instructor took over the controls in an attempt to manoeuvre the helicopter away from the drone.

They say that the drone in question appears to possibly be a DJI Phantom, although no idea which model. The drone and its operator have not been located. DJI do say, though, that they are looking into the incident and are ready to assist investigators. Obviously, anything they may find can’t be posted publicly as this is currently an ongoing investigation.

I think it’s pretty clear that incidents like these are only going to become more common as drones get into the hands of even more people. So, it’s only reasonable to assume that they’ll also get into the hands of more idiots causing issues like these. One can only hope that they start to wise up before ruining things even more for the rest of us.

[via Digital Trends / Bloomberg ]

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  • This type of Copter…is vulnerable anyway. That‘s what they told me.

  • I’m quite curious here , if the helicopter was doing hovering maneuvers then how did the drone present an immediate threat to it unless it was in a direct collision course. Wouldn’t the helicopter have almost no velocity in this case ? Think this is one i’m gonna keep track of how this story develops.

    • The “velocity” you speak of is the downward pull of gravity as the craft, it’s occupants, the jet fuel and the spinning debris hits the ground after a 30 foot fall — and kills the occupants.

      • Bolkey

        I always imagined helicopters as things flying by generating a vertical storm downward to stay afloat in the air. Wouldn’t a light drone be launched to the ground as soon as it comes into the turbulence of the rotor’s downward jet stream?

        • First sentence in the article addresses that notion.

  • JackDeth

    How do we know the drone wasn’t there first? What was the helicopter doing flying so low?
    It sounds to me the drone was flying low enough it was well within its rights.
    It seems to me like this “instructor” panicked and lost control of his aircraft.

    • MzUnGu

      The “right of way” belongs to the manned aircraft.

    • By law, the drone op should be within visual of his craft, and yield to all manned craft.

      An R22 doesn’t sneak up on you, they are insane loud. If the drone op was within visual of his craft, he was close enough to hear the helicopter and land his drone to yield right-of-way to the manned craft. People who think the drone was “well within his rights” should never own a drone. Or make paper airplanes.

  • Awe, did the it bity drone threaten the big bad helicopter? If the pilot hadn’t been an idiot and overreacted, this would have turned out differently. It’s like me not wanting to step on a bug so instead I freak out, step on a pitchfork, which pops up and smacks me in the head.

  • JackDeth

    If the drone was in that airspace first and the helicopter invaded that airspace, I’m sorry, but it’s the pilots fault. That would be like a someone not paying attention while driving a truck and almost hitting a bicyclist, swerving out of the way, and hitting a tree and then blaming the bicyclist for being in his way.

    • MzUnGu

      U need to move out of the way of manned aircraft, like you need to move out of the way of a firetruck on the road. Like a mountain biker needs to yield to the hikers on ta trail, Very simple concept. People’s lives are the stake.

      Drones being small and fast are hard to see…. Helicopters and other manned aircraft on the other hand… Please don’t tell me the drone operator can’t hear or see a helicopter coming.

  • The people commenting on this with their “expertise” in helicopter safety and airspace law reflect why strict drone regulation is inevitable. Pretty soon the only place we will be allowed to fly is in our living room.

  • David Harpe

    The drone didn’t cause the helicopter to crash. The pilot/instructor caused the helicopter to crash. They saw the drone and acted poorly in response. The exact same thing could have happened if it had been a bird or flock of birds appearing in front of the helicopter (both of which I’ve encountered airborne). That’s not to say it’s ok to be flying drones around aircraft – far from it. But it’s important to separate what was a poor execution by a pilot causing a crash and a drone mechanically impairing the aircraft. The helicopter was perfectly capable of flying, and pilot action – not the drone – caused it to not be that way any longer.

    It’s easy for people to jump to the conclusion that this was an intentionally reckless act by the drone operator. While that’s no doubt the most likely conclusion another thing to keep in mind is a lot of drones these days have fully autonomous modes – return-to-home (RTH) being the most common. With the DJI hardware it’s triggered manually by the pilot or automatically by the flight control software if the drone loses connection with the controller. In RTH mode the drone climbs to 50′ wherever it happens to be and makes a bee line to the launch point without the pilot touching the controls. More advanced models like the Mavic series have see-and-avoid where it will steer automatically around obstacles, but older models like the original Phantom don’t have this capability. Many higher-end drones also have mission-planning modes where you can pre-program waypoints for the drone to fly without operator intervention.

    Because of this it’s possible for drones to be in airspace occupied by aircraft without the operator fully appreciating that this is happening because of the autonomous flight modes available. It doesn’t abdicate their responsibility for the drone’s operation, but it shifts the act into a less sinister category versus intentionally flying a drone around a helicopter.

    • “The exact same thing could have happened if it had been a bird or flock of birds appearing in front of the helicopter”

      Birds do not have a legal responsibility to yield when they hear a helicopter approaching.

      “another thing to keep in mind is a lot of drones these days have fully autonomous modes”

      UAV operators are responsible for their craft, its location and trajectory, regardless which mode the device was placed in.

      “it shifts the act into a less sinister category”

      Its likely the drone operator was in the area due to its “remote” location, there hasn’t been any suggestion he was out there dive bombing helicopters. However, when he heard the helicopter in the area, he should have done what responsible ops do … land and wait until the airspace was clear.

  • suruha

    I used to be married to a guy that thought it was great fun to snag seagulls at the beach with the string from my son’s spinner kite. There are people who might just do something stupid like purposely fly a drone too near occupied manned air vehicles. Just to see if they can do it! That was his mentality!
    We can’t know what happened as we weren’t there. This is most unfortunate to have happened.

  • lewisfrancis

    Sounds pretty fishy to me, something tells me there’s more to this story to come.

  • Adwb

    pilot error surely?
    The down wash from his blades would have swatted any done out of the air space
    More likely the done is a excuse for a pilot error during the training

  • Dave Robinson

    Wow! So many stupid comments on here! I’m guessing the commenters are all drone users!

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