Description

On 14 January 2014, the crew of an Airbus Helicopters EC135 P2+ (LN-OOI) being operated by Norsk Luftambulanse from its base at Lørenskog to the site of a road traffic accident at Sollihøgda in day Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) failed to see a power line whilst descending to land near the accident and after main rotor damage was sustained during unintended contact, the helicopter descended rapidly to the ground out of control. Two of the three occupants were killed and a third seriously injured due to the severe impact. The helicopter was completely destroyed and slight damage was caused to a car which was hit by one of the severed power lines.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the AIB Norway. No Flight Recorder was carried - or required to be carried - on the accident helicopter but a number of high definition video recordings shot by people on the ground were made available. Also, the Non Volatile Memory in the Moving Map system installed in the helicopter which recorded, at frequent timed intervals, heading, speed, height agl and altitude amsl was successfully downloaded by the Operator.

The 52 year-old helicopter pilot had been flying for Norsk Luftambulanse since leaving the Air Force, where he had been trained as a helicopter pilot, in 1991. He had been based at Lørenskog since 2001 at which point he had been appointed Flight Operations Manager, a post he had continued to hold until 2010. Since then, he had continued to act as an instructor and test pilot for the Operator. He had a total of 1382 flying hours on the accident type and over 6000 hours in total.