Helicopter people, let me know how I did with this one. Its something a bit different for the channel so always looking for some feedback! Thanks. If you found this video to be interesting, be sure to subscribe as there is a new video every Saturday. This video also went out to my Patrons on Patreon 48 hours before going out publicly. Consider joining here from £1 per month: www.patreon.com/DisasterBreakdown
Yes, very interesting, and in general helicopter accidents are not so easy to work out of, as most close calls will result in you losing what keeps you off the ground.
Very tragic, first thing I thought was gearbox failure, poor souls, music is brilliant and visuals are stunning, well done and very interesting. Good luck.
From a former H/C pilot: yes it was fine, no problem at all. Well done since usually many people from the "fixed wing" community use to say a lot of stupid things about helicopters which are very different, very specific and much more complicated w.r.t. flight mechanics. Regards
My late father certified this very helicopter in Aberdeen not so many months before it crashed. Very shortly after, they phoned him for an option on the cause and without hesitation he immediately identified a gearbox failure, and almost the component. It was always a suspected weak spot,, but the cost of sending back the gearbox to Boeing Vertol was simply colossal. Sorry should say having a brand new gearbox.
@@chrishobson6431 of course not! He never made the final decision on things. Its a complex machine, and money and politics come into things...all a bit above his pay grade🙄
I was a design engineer on this project, and it was a Boeing-Vertol BV234, not a CH-47. A pity the FS images do not have the correct window configuration (this variant used Boeing 727 cabin windows), and a total of only 14 BV234s were produced. There were two variants, the 234LR, Long Range, with enlarged sponsons, and the 234UT Utility, with much smaller sponsons. The variant also had an isolated cabin floor to reduce cabin vibration, and a separate toilet compartment and a galley. The interior was produced by Metair, in Kent, England, and I worked for this company. Today the remainder of these aircraft are used for logging, and the enlarged sponsons are still used on the special forces variant of the Chinook.
I'm glad someone brought up that G-BWFC was a Boeing Vertol 234. In 1988 I was a 15 year old school boy and I did a school work experience at the BIH base at Beccles Heliport and I spent the following summer there doing more work experience. From memory the ex British Airways 234s were LRs and the fleet was sold to Columbia Helicopters for logging operations. I can't remember whether it was 1988 or 1989 but I watched sister aircraft G-BISR fly in to be painted before being exported and was fortunate enough to walk through the cabin. A few years later I was fortunate enough to fly in a RAF Chinook HC Mk2, which is a different beasty, as part of my aerospace engineering sandwich degree industrial placement.
The Boeing 234 is the civilian version of the U.S. Army's CH-47 "Chinook" Copy paste from a former 67U. Getting shot down in one pretty much sucks too.
I worked on the Chinook during the gearbox change programme in the Falklands during 1982. I spent an 'interesting' hour in almost darkness holding onto a blade during a howling gale and lashing rain while another technician worked to ensure the front rotors were correctly phased with the rear in the transmission tunnel on top of the aircraft.
@Winahh Taylahh It could have been. By the end of 1982, there was another batch of Chinooks joining 'BN' at Port San Carlos, all needing the gearbox change, so regrettably I cannot give you a definitive answer. There are pictures on the web of BN being recovered by another Chinook at Port san Carlos and flown back to Stanley for onward shipping back to Odiham in the UK. I can't believe it was 40 years ago!
Back when I was in the Army, one of the Chinook mechanics told me that this was the only aircraft capable of having a midair collision with itself because of the transmissions but I'd never heard of it happening until now.
Its Oct03,2022 today. I happened to meet the pilot Sq Ldr Pushp Vaid (retd). He is a such an experienced pilot. Even spectacular is his past and experience. He is one of the most unsung hero of Bangladesh war.He was awarded a Vir Chakra. The incident that he narrated was so vivid that one could have imagine it happening right in front. At one point he mentioned that it affected him so strongly that it took him long to come out of trauma. His Biographer is Wg Cdr Unni Kartha (Retd) (an experimental test pilot).
I had no idea that there was a passenger variant of the Chinook! I learn so much from this channel. Keep up the great work; I'm really enjoying the variety in your recent content 🤘🏽🤘🏽
70 years of production allows for quite a few variations. The DOD was tasked with replacing it and failed after a few $billion. Shows the state of US industrial design today.
Four years prior to this, a similar Chinook disaster accurred in Mannheim Germany, killing 46 people in total. The helicopter was just on its way to lift an international team of skydivers attempting a record breaking formation jump, when the pilots suddenly noticed unusual sounds and behaviour caused by a beginning gear malfunction. Although they managed to turn around, both rotors collided during the approach to the runway. The craft then crashed onto a nearby highway which luckily wasn't crowded at that moment. None of the passengers and crew survived. In the aftermath, the entire Chinook fleet was grounded and equipped with further safety mechanisms. They, unfortunately, weren't able to prevent Sumburgh from happening.
I was in Germany when this accident happened. My recollection was the rear transmission seized after being starved of transmission fluid. The cause was traced to the use of pecan shells used to clean out transmission lines after servicing and they had failed to fully flush the lines completely. The remaining shell fragments caused a filter blockage and thus starved the aft transmission to seize. I remember vividly the Stars and Stripes picture of the rear engine literally torquing out of the fuselage as a result. There was no possibility to recover or auto rotate to land, a very tragic day.
2:17 and 11:18: Just for fun, the helicopters shown in the video are not Chinook but CH46 SeaKnight used by the Marines Corps ... Same twin-rotor but smaller.
I have been trying to research more into this as I have gotten older. I was only 1 when this happened. But my uncle was also a passenger in this journey and died in this crash.
Crazy how you all can gather in one place as strangers without even really meaning to. UA-cam is a beautiful ugly place . May your loved ones rest well.
With decades of helicopter flying and maintenance experience I wanted to comment on a couple of points. Oil doesn't cause corrosion, that would have been sea water vapor and sea spray, it will destroy gearbox and rotor head parts if it is not properly treated. Lastly, a couple of your shots used when you were describing the Chinook CH-47 were of the Sea Knight CH-46. They look similar and it is easy to confuse them. The CH-47 is much larger but without comparative context it is difficult to judge size. Due to this if you see one in the air the easiest way to tell them apart is that the CH-47 has 4 landing gear and the CH-46 only has 3.
@@moistmike4150 I think it meant oil as in Crude Oil fumes, the stuff you get in pre-refining oil product fumes when crudely done on site includes stuff like Benzol, which is pretty corrosive....
Saltwater corrosion on aluminum is akin to pouring weak acid on the metal. All the aluminum parts have corrosion protection coatings, but if a part is ever scratched, that's all it takes, both from a corrosion standpoint, but also, serves as a stress riser. Either can initiate a crack in the presence of vibration.
Watching airplane disaster videos made me feel better about flying in airplanes, but watching the few helicopter disaster videos out there has yet to have the same effect on my opinion of flying in helicopters. Anyway, commenting for the algo, love these vids!
@Christina. Agree, i feel same way. I remember asking a pilot friend of our's if she flew helicopters. Her answer 30 years ago I never forgot. She said "if I got in an aircraft and looked out the windows and don't see wings, I'd get right out"
@@auntbarbara5576 I’ve flown in light aircraft but not yet a helicopter. I’d love to! My son actually turned down the chance to fly in the police helicopter when he joined the force, because he didn’t like the idea. I’d have swapped places no problem! I guess the main increased risk for helicopter pilots is always being at a fairly low altitude, without the chance of recovery from a stall etc. it’s just a pity those blades could reach each other.
@@moiraatkinson Failures in a fixed wing aircraft are likely to leave the pilot with a compromised but flyable machine, by contrast a helicopter has many failures that make it immediately uncontrollable
Great video to watch and learn about the details of the cause of this accident. I crewed Chinook during my service in the USArmy. Just one clarification concerning the synchronization of the forward and aft rotor heads/blades. Between the forward and aft rotor, seats the combining transmission, also called the C-box. It receives input from both engines. From the C-box, the power from the engines is transferred to both forward and aft transmission through a system of shafts resulting in the rotation of the forward and aft heads/blades. It is at the C-box where the synchronization of the forward and aft rotor system takes place. The C-box has a lever that, when disengaged, allows maintenance personnel to sync both rotor systems. The lever is secured with a bolt and safety wire to the C-box.
I've lived in shetland my whole life and never knew about this accident! 🤯 I did recall hearing about a helicopter accident here involving a super puma helicopter not long ago, if I remember right it was such a big deal that all super pumas that were in service had to be grounded until they found the cause, might be an idea for a future video? 😉 btw I love your videos and I'm so glad to see shetland getting some recognition on one of my favourite youtube channels 😁😎
I'm not a helicopter person, but I'm a Disaster breakdown person. Thank you so much for this! It's just what I needed today before my final leg of a road trip. I enjoyed this very much!
Do you watch these while flying?that would freak me out ...... I watch these and because I am getting ready to fly for the first time in the next few months and these made me realize how much is pilot error
@@therealshaft9768 I remember someone from the NTSB once saying that in most - not all - accidents, there was some degree of pilot error, even just 5%.
@@moiraatkinson yes very rarely is it something major like a fire in the air or sudden decompression or a blade breaks and cuts cabin in half..... I just know lately at least once a week the news has something bad to say about airlines or planes crashes. I am scared of flying but will be for the first time in Sept this channel made me realize planes are pretty safe just have to trust the captins and crew and with the tech we have now planes basically fly themselves
@@therealshaft9768 be sure to enjoy your first flight. Takeoff and landing are the exiting bits 😀. Just tell yourself that the pilots don’t want to crash any more than you do, they’ll certainly make sure nothing goes wrong. Unlike bad customer service from a shop, if the pilots do their job badly they have to suffer the consequences too.
@@moiraatkinson thank you 😊 only thing that I fear is going down over open water since I will be flying internationally because one thing I learned from Disater breakdown is that there are usually survivors but in all the cases I've seen there are none on open water unless it's close to the coast. That would suck to crash on open water and survive only to drift out to sea and be eaten by sharks, but it's weird I am excited/ scared but like most things after the first time it will be like nothing.
I provided air traffic control for that area of the North Sea for 6 years around the turn of the millennium and worked with the Tower controller who was providing ATC at the time of the crash. He said that the aircraft was there, he looked away for a second and when he turned back, it was gone. My only real nitpick is the name of the oil platform. It's not the 'Brent Platform C'. It was called the 'Brent Charlie'. There were four platforms in the Brent field (five of you count the Brent Spar) and they were named (north to south) the Brent Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta - the first four letters of the ICAO phonetic alphabet. Also I've been in UK ATC or more than 25 years and the pronunciation of the helicopter's name in the video is correct (at least in UK civilian ATC). The difference may be between countries or between military and civil aviation, but the double 'o' sound in my experience is the same as in 'shoo'. The coastguard helicopter in the air that day was almost certainly a S61N registration G-BDOC. It served the area for nearly 25 years, retiring in 2010. It was occasionally swapped out for another of the same type when it needed maintenance so it is possible that it wasn't, but that chance is very, very small. The commenters who said that offshore workers refused to fly on Chinooks after the crash are absolutely correct. The people I knew who had been around when they were flying called them 'Contra-Rotating Death Bananas'.
I spent time in the Gulf of Mexico flying to the offshore oil platforms in Bell 206s, part of the job after the last flight was to hose down and wash the salt off the machine, to keep corrosion at bay. It's a very corrosive environment. I was a fairly young helicopter pilot back then- I made the transition from airplanes in 1982. Boeing makes the helicopter today a much-improved version. It's a good machine, Columbia Helicopters out of Oregon operates the civil version. Helicopters need a lot of looking after, one of the reasons they are expensive to operate and to fly lots of moving parts. Good job.
I was at school (in Edinburgh) when this happened. To be in sight of home and a near total loss of all on board was such a tragedy. The surviving helicopters now operate in Oregon with Columbia Helicopters, although not as passenger carriers.
TBH I wouldn't mind if channels like this and others I watch brand out into other forms of aviation as well as other transport disasters that happen on rail, road, and sea (and perhaps even aerospace but I'm sure most if not all rocket and shuttle accidents have been documented to hell by now)
The Chinook still flies here in California... It's also used as a Firefighting Chopper dropping tons of water. Both Military Bases here in Cerritos and San Diego still uses them as well.
My only experience in a helicopter was when I was visiting Las Vegas and took part in a tour of the Grand Canyon, which included a helicopter ride down into the canyon, followed by a ride on the river at the bottom. It was definitely a bit of a freaky experience, but ended up being an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime moment. As for this disaster video, it's another winner (not that that's a surprise anymore). Keep up the amazing work!
I love that you are expanding what you’re doing in terms of different modes of transportation. This was a great video! My heart goes out to the families left behind because of this incident.
A disaster like this was averted on a Coast Guard helicopter flying in the Bahamas several years ago, when it started making a funny noise and the pilots decided to return to the base over water. The Bahamian cops in the back demanded they land immediately, and as they were hovering to land, the entire transmission locked up when the helicopter was still about ten feet above the ground. It hit so hard it broke all the blades off as they flexed and hit the ground, but everyone survived with only minor injuries. I was there after that, and the lesson I learned was, when helicopters start making funny sounds, get them on the ground as quick as you can.
But WHY did it happen?? 😮 According to this video, they found out WHAT happened, not WHY. This was a professional outfit, years of operating in the North Sea, seawater erosion was a known issue. The Chinook have strict maintenance routines, operated by armies & companies all over the world in extreme conditions. And presumably the forward gears that didn't fail had no cracking issues when recovered. So why did the other one fail? Was it badly manufactured, used for too long, not installed / inspected correctly, used the wrong lubricant, the protective housing was flawed...? THAT is the 'why it happened' question. 🤔
@@wyomingadventures Watch it again. It says what caused the failure, it doesn't say the maintenance was done incorrectly, or the parts where inadequate for the environment etc...Plane crash investigations go into the history of the parts & usage, "Lack of maintenance." of what? That doesn't pinpoint the actual problem, if it was mistakes by the ground crew, inadequate maintenance schedules or badly designed parts for that environment. What was changed as a result?
@@JohnDoe-tx8lq more than likely it wasn’t inspected enough and/or Boeing didn’t expect the type of weather conditions with salt water and oil. Unfortunately aviation gets better after each accident.
The video does in fact indicate that the existing maintenance was inadequate (see 10:42 -- more stringent maintenance means the existing maintenance failed to catch an issue that could have been noticeable). You seem to be assuming that it must be a fluke for this to have happened. (Insisting repeatedly to know if the maintenance was done wrong, for example.) [edit: You seem to be assuming it must have been "maintenance done wrong" as opposed to "maintenance not adequate even if done right." Apologies for the wording.] If you want more details, the accident report is the first source link in the description. "(xiii) The 'in service' inspection programme, which was based on the results of tests on an aft transmission and previous service experience of both transmissions, was not adequate to reveal the impending failure of the forward bolted joint." "(xv) Condition monitoring of the transmissions might have given indications which could have prevented the accident but suitable systems were not developed to the point where they were approved for operational use at the time of the accident." "Underlying causes were the inadequacy of the hitherto accepted aircraft industry standard of test programme carried out by the manufacturers and the insufficiently stringent inspection programmes required by the FAA and the CAA.." If you want to get technical, it's possible that the usage of (approved) modified parts of the assembly had a hand, but the details of that are sufficiently "in the weeds" that it's perfectly reasonable to just refer to what happened and the more stringent maintenance procedures -- especially seeing as its listed relevance comes back to improper inspection (a part of maintenance) in the Conclusions.
We lost the smaller version of of the Boeing helicopter, CH 46, at Marble Mountain due to an oil line that was not reconnected to the forward transmission. It was at about 500 feet when we heard a loud bang and saw it crash in the surf. Miraculously a few survived the crash. Once that synchronization is interrupted, it is all over. I salute the pilot of the Brit 47 for attempting to control the aircraft with power adjustment even as they were in disastrous failure.
Side note: I worked on Gazelles. When we could no longer get transmission oil with whale additive, transmissions started dropping like flies. The "suitable substitute" was not up to par.
I flew in G-BWFC about a month before it failed when working at the Clyde Field east of Aberdeen, the Chinooks were my favourite as they seemed so understressed, were bus-like inside and were brilliant in foggy weather as they could loiter around then land in a thinner patch and get folk moving, survivers of the same batch are still flying now with new owners ! Still love them today.
There was a helicopter crash in Norway just a couple of years ago where the rotor simply fell off the helicopter and crashed also transporting people from platforms.
When i was a kid our neighbours son was on this. The first death i ever experienced. I used to watch him wash his Opel manta when he was home and we used to look up to him. Sad time for everyone. Thanks for doing this one!
I had over 30 years flying to rigs by helicopter all over the world. I always felt uncomfortable in them, especially flying at night close to the arctic circle. One rig I worked on in Malaysia we lost a Wessex and all 15 onboard offshore Kuantan around 1974. From that I went to a helirig on Tarakan island indonesia The first few times I flew to shetland was in a Dakota
As a complete helicopter non-expert, I'd always naïvely assumed the double rotors on the Chinook provided some redundancy in event of failure ... didn't realise they could instead so instantaneously lead to collision and disaster if sync failed! 😲 Thank you for all that you teach us Chloe, and for your always-respectful approach to these tragic events that affect people so deeply.
First thing I thought when watching this was "How do these helicopters prevent their propellers from colliding?" To my surprise, this was exactly the cause of the disaster.
It seems so fundamentally stoopid from a design standpoint. There should be a much larger offset of the rotors to avoid the possibility of the blades hitting each other.
@@someotherdude The blades collided because there was a catastrophic failure in the transfer of torque from the engines to the forward rotor blades, causing their speed to drop... so even if they had not collided with the aft rotor blades the aircraft still would have been doomed because the forward blades would have stalled.
@@donaldsalkovick396 there are some aspects of the human psyche that we have no control over. Cheating death on an individual event is one thing, but I think ‘survivors guilt’ is a form of PTSD and that has affected even the toughest among us!
Great job! I like that you're doing other kinds of disaster videos. Appreciate the pictures. Know it's not easy to find pictures of the exact of the vehicle involved in the incident. No criticism from me. I love what you're doing!
I live in Shetland and remember being in the seamanship class in school in Lerwick when the news started to filter in that there had been a helicopter crash. The seamanship class actually looked out onto Lerwick harbour which at the time was a hive of oil industry activity and I seem to remember that we saw the Lerwick lifeboat racing out of the harbour.. I don't think you will find a more brutal environment for helicopters than operating around Shetland. I remember many years ago one of the Coastguard Rescue Helicopter(S61) crew saying about a mission they'd been on during a hurricane in winter and he described it like this "at times we were being blown backwards".
Helicopters scare the crap outta me, I hate being in them. I like your different content as well, I haven't watched much stuff involving Helicopters. It's sad that there was nothing the pilots could have done to get through the crash, it's not like they did anything wrong- just doing their job and still have something so devastating happen...unreal. To be able to continue flying after something like that is also amazing though. You have a knack for not over explaining and making everything too technical in your stuff, this channel is one of my absolute favorite air accidents out of the others.
Very good video, well done. Cool to see the actual parts that failed in the Chinook gearbox, and the Diagrams of the parts. I've seen Chinooks in person Many times, and every time i see em, I'm still impressed, There so Big, and those Dual Rotors make for a Very Quick Helicopter, most people are surprised at how Fast they are. And the Lifting Capabilities are definitely there Strong Point. I enjoyed the Helicopter Footage, would Love to see some more.
My Father in law was on this very Chinook, RIP and to rub salt in the wounds the late Maxwell went on to try and rip off the victims families when it came to compensation...
A lad I worked with in the 80's worked on a north sea oil rig for a few years , worked at another place the bosses nephew was lost on Piper Alpha , my mates dad worked in the north sea and then went to a rig in the south China sea , hard work them jobs .
I remember this. I can also remember the fallout from the disaster and it's from that fallout that I began learning about metal fatigue caused by stress - it's fascinating topic.
5:13 would the crewmember "recall" or would he "recant"? Recant means to "say that one no longer holds an opinion or belief", that is, if he "recanted" then he is stating that information is false.
i used to work for columbia helicopters under the 234s and also 107s (both boeing and kawasaki variants) they are pretty reliable workhorses but do require a bit more maintenance than other whirlybirds but not as much as the sikorski skycranes or 41s... we did have a fatal crash when i worked there when a 107 had been completed after an overhaul out of the shop in aurora OR. somehow the forward and aft collective yokes were swapped with each other and nobody had caught it. they are very similar and only with great difficulty can they be told apart. on the first flight, somehow that mistake caused the ship to invert as well and crash. the two pilots and one of the mechanics were killed. may they RIP
I was in sunburgh that morning about to flly a BEA Viscount down to Glasgow. Our crew had dinner with the chinook crew the night before in the ‘Club’ where flight crews stayed in Shetland. The purser sat next to me and drew on his serviette the way the gearbox had been modified to sort out recent chinook problems. We were doing our preflight checks when overthe radio we heard off the accident, near the airport. Very quickly an RAF nimrod was on site, very calmly organising the search and rescue.
I work on the CH-47D/F models and the variant involved in this accident. This ACFT is actually a BV234 not the military version. Boeing Vertol built several of this based off the Ch-47C models. It was basically a super C with extended fuel tanks and air conditioning. Notice the scoop on the front r/h side. And the square windows. Columbia Helicopters in Oregon operates the remaining airframes in existence today for logging, construction, passenger transportation and fire fighting. Interestingly, this ACFT is know as salty dog, due to the accident. Another BV234 crashed in Peru just after takeoff. A rear blade failed. After the investigation it was found that failed blade was from salty dog. Good informative video tho. Just a bit more history for ya😉
If you’re interested in Scottish helicopter disasters there’s also Bond Offshore Helicopters Flight 85N, it happened off the NE coast and we have a memorial for the crash in Aberdeen (my city). If you have PlaneFinder or FlightRadar24, you should just watch Aberdeen international airport, we have a LOT of helicopters leaving/returning every day that go out to oil fields, it’s a very busy airport.
Having lived in Aberdeen as a child I remember these massive helicopters flying offshore. Full load of workers and a huge container on slings underneath. Quite a sight to see as a small child, we lived beside Aberdeen airport and heliport. If memory serves me right it was the largest heliport in the world. At one point there was 4 different companies operating helicopter flights to the oil rigs alone. The skies were buzzing with different types of helicopters.
Apparently only helicopters with twin engines are allowed to work offshore, but these two engines are always coupled to a single transmission and it's always the transmission that fails on them, go figure!
More likely to have a engine failure then gear box. You only hear about the gear box ones because everyone dies😂 ya never hear about the engine failure because they make it back
Anton, I would suggest looking up survivorship bias. Engines fail a lot more often than transmissions, which is why you have the dual engine requirement. While I'm sure it would be nice to have dual transmissions you can't really drive a single rotor with two separate gearboxes at the same time.
@@caracalfloppa4997 Do you have some proof that these extremely reliable jet turbine engines are susceptible to failure, I was under the impression that JT's had few moving parts hence their extreme reliability and their problems were all to do with high temps rather than torque or torsion. It would seem to me that two engines under moderate to high load channeling all their torque through one Gbx would place enormous stresses on that gearbox which is absolutely chockabloc full of fast moving low tolerance moving parts in direct contact with each other.
@@antonrudenham3259 I'm not making the claim that they are susceptible to failure, just that the gearboxes are even less so. Not even necessarily in a catastrophic sense, but in the sense that sometimes you can see power fluctuations and you need the flexibility to be able to throttle that engine down to recover without falling out of the sky. Gearboxes are extremely robust because they have to be. The one in the video only failed because of what was likely years of corrosion that went unnoticed due to inadequate maintenance. And really, these transmissions are remarkably simple. They don't have to switch gears during operation at all.
The BV234 was a remarkable helicopter which was just as safe as any other helicopter operating in the North sea.i was involved as an engineer maintaining these aircraft and can speak from experience. Yes it required a lot of maintenance to keep it safely flying, but no more than any other helicopter operating in that sector.
There was a very similar Chinook crash in the German city of Mannheim in 1982 while flying with a group of parachutists. 46 people died it in that crash, 41 passengers and 5 crew. Making it deadlier than the Brent Chinook crash.
There was nothing the pilots could do is why I don't ride on helicopters. Mechanical failures on planes can often be recovered. There is rarely anything you can do for a helicopter.
I happen to know Mr Pushp Vaid, this man is an Indian war hero and could not do anything about this accident. He's done some really heroic flying and it was shocking to hear how this pilot was treated by the helicopter operator.
I've often thought that the Chinook would make a great flying motor home. Land it wherever you want, pull open the side awning, pull out the bar-b-que and lawn chairs and enjoy the weekend. Pack up and fly to another location for a change of scenery.
BAH/BIH introduced the BV234 in around 1981. They had 6 - G-BISN, 'SO* (*which had a controlled & successful ditch in the N.Sea in 1984), 'SP, 'SR; GBJAC & the ill-fated G-BWFC subject of this tragedy. Were used to various installations, but principally for Shell mainly to the Brent, but also likes of Fulmar/Clyde/Auk. Aberdeen in the 80s had multiple crew change flights to the rigs & installations, & was the busiest heliport in the world with BAH, Bristow, B-Cal Helis & North Scottish. Still is busy today, but not as it used to be. Listening to the transmissions in the 80s, I recall hearing Capt. Vaid on the Chinooks.
I rode the helicopter that shuttled between NY's JFK and the Pan Am building. The ticket was $5.00 for servicemen in uniform which was approximately 1/3 the taxi fare. This was in 1967 & '68. They had an accident in the early 1970's that caused them to cancel the service. I believe the fare for civilians was $10.00 which went up to $15.00 which caused the military fare to rise to $7.50. Still a great deal. I believe they were using the CH-47 type helicopter or the smaller Navy version which was a CH-46. Anyway, it was a great, quick trip and a fun flight. I would take the express bus from Norfolk's Naval Operations Base to the Port Authority terminal in NYC. Take the subway to the Pan Am Building. Elevator to the roof. Helicopter to JFK, take the shuttle to Providence, RI and be home by 9:00 P.M. if I wanted to spend the weekend in RI where my parents lived. I had an interesting young life with the Navy.
Man this would be horrifying. Those gears have to be made to the highest tolerances and with the best alloys available. But even then bad things can happen
Hi good video The helikopter was a Boeing 234 Chinook and not the CH-47 ,the CH -47 is the military varient and the 234 is the civilan varient . British International Helikoptere did suffet a fatal accident after the Chinook accident ,in 1992 6 people lost there live including the 3 passengers when Sikorsky S-61 was manouvering over the deck to land on an oil installation in the North Sea and the tail rotor came into collision with a Crane and crashed to the deck and later rolled over in to the Sea. There have been Many accidents in the North Sea involving helicopters both UK and Norway.
We had a MH-53 sitting in our hanger that was in several very large cardboard boxes. The word was it came back from a civilian rework facility with the rotor head safety wired backwards, the rotor head separated in flight over the Chesapeake bay and there where no survivors. RIP Norsemen . There was an unconfirmed rumor that one of the pilot’s legs sat in one of the boxes for several weeks.
maintenance of multi mission civilian helos operating on high sodium environment (like to & from off shore oil rigs) have additional maintenance intervals that include extensive checks for fatigue cracks sooner than later . . . the circular bearing of the MH-47A Chinook forward rotor with the fatigue crack shows like it hasn't been touched in a long time . . .
During this time I worked within the oil industry, traveling back and forth from the oil installations by Chinook was hated by mostly everyone I knew, including myself. After the accident offshore workers refused to travel via Chinook, the oil companies had to scramble to utilise oil supply vessels to get the workforce out to the installation, a very long sea journey. Globally the Chinook had many, many catastrophic accidents.
My brother was a suppply boat skipper at the time of this. Accident. One 24hr trip on a supply boat was usually sufficient to convince the oil workers that choppers were much nicer to ride than even the largest suppply boats.
It's a Chinook - the sheep of the helicopter world. It exists to be found, metaphorically, upside down in a clarty hole, dead as a doornail with 4 legs in the air. Even British squaddies aren't fond of them and I know from personal experience, they're not the brightest on the planet... They're famous for the hydraulics, if you aren't getting a gentle patter of red rain, then the hydraulics are empty.. This isn't good... I'd feel safer on a clapped out De Havilland Comet I. Contra-rotatating-death-banana is a perfect description by the way.
Germany opted to buy a large number of Chinook helicopters for its military this year....hopefully the design of that transmission gear was revised in the meantime. The connection of a pinion and a beveled gear does not seem the best way to transmit so much horse power to me.
At 5:14 there’s a big difference between “recant” (what I heard and what’s in the captions) and “recount” (which was intended) - they have almost opposite meanings. Recount means you’re telling the story of what happened. But recant means refuting (taking back) something you previously said or believed.
Don't know much about helicopters, but always thought if I was rich and could do it, I'd buy one to get around in. Lol. This is a sad story and I don't mean to make light of this tragedy. Thank you for your time and work on these videos! I love this channel ❤️
Ok you guy's help me out, back in the late 70's or early 80's I rode on a Twin Rotor Helicopter that belonged to New York Airways. This was an air taxi from one airport to another in NYC. What kind of Helicopter was it?
Helicopter people, let me know how I did with this one. Its something a bit different for the channel so always looking for some feedback!
Thanks.
If you found this video to be interesting, be sure to subscribe as there is a new video every Saturday. This video also went out to my Patrons on Patreon 48 hours before going out publicly. Consider joining here from £1 per month: www.patreon.com/DisasterBreakdown
Yes, very interesting, and in general helicopter accidents are not so easy to work out of, as most close calls will result in you losing what keeps you off the ground.
Very tragic, first thing I thought was gearbox failure, poor souls, music is brilliant and visuals are stunning, well done and very interesting. Good luck.
you freakin NAILED it man. so very intriguing and well explained. throw some more choppers stories out there my friend. 😎✌🔥🔥🔥
Hey, what do you think of the ariana afghan crash in 1998?
From a former H/C pilot: yes it was fine, no problem at all. Well done since usually many people from the "fixed wing" community use to say a lot of stupid things about helicopters which are very different, very specific and much more complicated w.r.t. flight mechanics. Regards
My late father certified this very helicopter in Aberdeen not so many months before it crashed. Very shortly after, they phoned him for an option on the cause and without hesitation he immediately identified a gearbox failure, and almost the component. It was always a suspected weak spot,, but the cost of sending back the gearbox to Boeing Vertol was simply colossal. Sorry should say having a brand new gearbox.
Your late dad is guilty of murder.....
@@chrishobson6431
of course not! He never made the final decision on things. Its a complex machine, and money and politics come into things...all a bit above his pay grade🙄
@@gregsmith1070 I'm joking mate
Its your fathers fault then
@@gregsmith1070 your late father is responsible. Greg Feith agrees
I was a design engineer on this project, and it was a Boeing-Vertol BV234, not a CH-47. A pity the FS images do not have the correct window configuration (this variant used Boeing 727 cabin windows), and a total of only 14 BV234s were produced. There were two variants, the 234LR, Long Range, with enlarged sponsons, and the 234UT Utility, with much smaller sponsons. The variant also had an isolated cabin floor to reduce cabin vibration, and a separate toilet compartment and a galley. The interior was produced by Metair, in Kent, England, and I worked for this company.
Today the remainder of these aircraft are used for logging, and the enlarged sponsons are still used on the special forces variant of the Chinook.
I'm glad someone brought up that G-BWFC was a Boeing Vertol 234. In 1988 I was a 15 year old school boy and I did a school work experience at the BIH base at Beccles Heliport and I spent the following summer there doing more work experience. From memory the ex British Airways 234s were LRs and the fleet was sold to Columbia Helicopters for logging operations. I can't remember whether it was 1988 or 1989 but I watched sister aircraft G-BISR fly in to be painted before being exported and was fortunate enough to walk through the cabin. A few years later I was fortunate enough to fly in a RAF Chinook HC Mk2, which is a different beasty, as part of my aerospace engineering sandwich degree industrial placement.
@@EuropaSman k
The Boeing 234 is the civilian version of the U.S. Army's CH-47 "Chinook" Copy paste from a former 67U. Getting shot down in one pretty much sucks too.
@@EuropaSman I have jumped from a Chinook in combat!
curious what the max range for a 234LR is?
I worked on the Chinook during the gearbox change programme in the Falklands during 1982. I spent an 'interesting' hour in almost darkness holding onto a blade during a howling gale and lashing rain while another technician worked to ensure the front rotors were correctly phased with the rear in the transmission tunnel on top of the aircraft.
@Winahh Taylahh It could have been. By the end of 1982, there was another batch of Chinooks joining 'BN' at Port San Carlos, all needing the gearbox change, so regrettably I cannot give you a definitive answer. There are pictures on the web of BN being recovered by another Chinook at Port san Carlos and flown back to Stanley for onward shipping back to Odiham in the UK.
I can't believe it was 40 years ago!
crazy story, did you fight there?
@@NikosTechDowntime No, I was posted there after the main conflict, but tensions were still high at that time. We had a couple of air raid alerts.
@@Broadercasting oh wow, sounds like a amazing story?
That's the flight line maintenance I remember....
Back when I was in the Army, one of the Chinook mechanics told me that this was the only aircraft capable of having a midair collision with itself because of the transmissions but I'd never heard of it happening until now.
Its happened twice since 1962, and the walnut one was OSHA's fault, Id say that's a pretty good record.
@@devin1983 I'll agree with that.
@@sjb3460 I just did, thank you.
Robinson r22 aswell!
@@georgesmith8268 That's mast bumping , different issue .
Its Oct03,2022 today. I happened to meet the pilot Sq Ldr Pushp Vaid (retd).
He is a such an experienced pilot. Even spectacular is his past and experience. He is one of the most unsung hero of Bangladesh war.He was awarded a Vir Chakra.
The incident that he narrated was so vivid that one could have imagine it happening right in front. At one point he mentioned that it affected him so strongly that it took him long to come out of trauma.
His Biographer is Wg Cdr Unni Kartha (Retd) (an experimental test pilot).
I had no idea that there was a passenger variant of the Chinook! I learn so much from this channel. Keep up the great work; I'm really enjoying the variety in your recent content 🤘🏽🤘🏽
Me too man. I saw the thumbnail and thought, is that a Chinook?!?! I had no idea there was a civilian version.
Boeing Model 234LR, based off of the CH-47C/HC1 version, with enlarged fuel tanks for longer range.
70 years of production allows for quite a few variations. The DOD was tasked with replacing it and failed after a few $billion. Shows the state of US industrial design today.
@@sjb3460 All done with paper and slide rules. Amazing.
@@sjb3460 The new CH-53K has a higher capacity then the Chinook. Travelspeed is named with 170knt, ~195mph.
Four years prior to this, a similar Chinook disaster accurred in Mannheim Germany, killing 46 people in total. The helicopter was just on its way to lift an international team of skydivers attempting a record breaking formation jump, when the pilots suddenly noticed unusual sounds and behaviour caused by a beginning gear malfunction. Although they managed to turn around, both rotors collided during the approach to the runway. The craft then crashed onto a nearby highway which luckily wasn't crowded at that moment. None of the passengers and crew survived. In the aftermath, the entire Chinook fleet was grounded and equipped with further safety mechanisms. They, unfortunately, weren't able to prevent Sumburgh from happening.
Remember seeing a video of this at one point; seem to remember seeing some of the rotor blades separating from the aircraft.
It was used as an example in our Army rotorcraft school.
I was in Germany when this accident happened. My recollection was the rear transmission seized after being starved of transmission fluid. The cause was traced to the use of pecan shells used to clean out transmission lines after servicing and they had failed to fully flush the lines completely. The remaining shell fragments caused a filter blockage and thus starved the aft transmission to seize. I remember vividly the Stars and Stripes picture of the rear engine literally torquing out of the fuselage as a result. There was no possibility to recover or auto rotate to land, a very tragic day.
2:17 and 11:18: Just for fun, the helicopters shown in the video are not Chinook but CH46 SeaKnight used by the Marines Corps ... Same twin-rotor but smaller.
Guaranteed to happen a couple times whenever somebody does a video on Chinooks, lol.
It's likely a model of the Chinook wasn't available at the time or if a model did exist, likely couldn't work due to age.
Thank you for making this video. You were respectful and made a great job. My father died along with the other passengers on that day.
My Father in law also RIP
I have been trying to research more into this as I have gotten older. I was only 1 when this happened. But my uncle was also a passenger in this journey and died in this crash.
May they rest in peace 🙏🏼
Crazy how you all can gather in one place as strangers without even really meaning to. UA-cam is a beautiful ugly place . May your loved ones rest well.
Peace to all ❤
With decades of helicopter flying and maintenance experience I wanted to comment on a couple of points.
Oil doesn't cause corrosion, that would have been sea water vapor and sea spray, it will destroy gearbox and rotor head parts if it is not properly treated.
Lastly, a couple of your shots used when you were describing the Chinook CH-47 were of the Sea Knight CH-46. They look similar and it is easy to confuse them. The CH-47 is much larger but without comparative context it is difficult to judge size. Due to this if you see one in the air the easiest way to tell them apart is that the CH-47 has 4 landing gear and the CH-46 only has 3.
Also, the engines on the CH-46/BV107 are internal to the fuselage, not externally mounted as on the CH-47/BV234.
@@billhood8765 Agreed, I left out details that may or may not be visible due to silhouette aspect. The landing gear are almost always visible.
Yeah, when he mentioned that corrosion was caused by water AND oil, I was like, uhm... No.
@@moistmike4150 I think it meant oil as in Crude Oil fumes, the stuff you get in pre-refining oil product fumes when crudely done on site includes stuff like Benzol, which is pretty corrosive....
This is why preventative maintenance is so important. Thank you for the video and I love your channel Chloe!
Saltwater corrosion on aluminum is akin to pouring weak acid on the metal. All the aluminum parts have corrosion protection coatings, but if a part is ever scratched, that's all it takes, both from a corrosion standpoint, but also, serves as a stress riser. Either can initiate a crack in the presence of vibration.
Watching airplane disaster videos made me feel better about flying in airplanes, but watching the few helicopter disaster videos out there has yet to have the same effect on my opinion of flying in helicopters. Anyway, commenting for the algo, love these vids!
@Christina. Agree, i feel same way. I remember asking a pilot friend of our's if she flew helicopters. Her answer 30 years ago I never forgot. She said "if I got in an aircraft and looked out the windows and don't see wings, I'd get right out"
@@auntbarbara5576 I’ve flown in light aircraft but not yet a helicopter. I’d love to! My son actually turned down the chance to fly in the police helicopter when he joined the force, because he didn’t like the idea. I’d have swapped places no problem!
I guess the main increased risk for helicopter pilots is always being at a fairly low altitude, without the chance of recovery from a stall etc. it’s just a pity those blades could reach each other.
@@moiraatkinson Failures in a fixed wing aircraft are likely to leave the pilot with a compromised but flyable machine, by contrast a helicopter has many failures that make it immediately uncontrollable
I think my pilot friend explained the difference best when she said "planes fly, helicopters prevent themselves from falling"
@@JamieR2062 Aunt Barbara adores you!
Great video to watch and learn about the details of the cause of this accident. I crewed Chinook during my service in the USArmy.
Just one clarification concerning the synchronization of the forward and aft rotor heads/blades. Between the forward and aft rotor, seats the combining transmission, also called the C-box. It receives input from both engines. From the C-box, the power from the engines is transferred to both forward and aft transmission through a system of shafts resulting in the rotation of the forward and aft heads/blades.
It is at the C-box where the synchronization of the forward and aft rotor system takes place. The C-box has a lever that, when disengaged, allows maintenance personnel to sync both rotor systems. The lever is secured with a bolt and safety wire to the C-box.
Even though im not the biggest fan of helicopters, I LOVED this episode
Thanks!
Same!
@@DisasterBreakdown congrats on being large enough to have attracted spam bots.
@@dontspikemydrink9382 bome soux
I've lived in shetland my whole life and never knew about this accident! 🤯 I did recall hearing about a helicopter accident here involving a super puma helicopter not long ago, if I remember right it was such a big deal that all super pumas that were in service had to be grounded until they found the cause, might be an idea for a future video? 😉
btw I love your videos and I'm so glad to see shetland getting some recognition on one of my favourite youtube channels 😁😎
@Benji P But for a long time Pumas were withdrawn from use globally. Now there is an updated version called Cougar.
@Gordon Freeman Thanks for info! In Sweden they were replaced by Blackhawks.
I'm not a helicopter person, but I'm a Disaster breakdown person. Thank you so much for this! It's just what I needed today before my final leg of a road trip. I enjoyed this very much!
Do you watch these while flying?that would freak me out ...... I watch these and because I am getting ready to fly for the first time in the next few months and these made me realize how much is pilot error
@@therealshaft9768 I remember someone from the NTSB once saying that in most - not all - accidents, there was some degree of pilot error, even just 5%.
@@moiraatkinson yes very rarely is it something major like a fire in the air or sudden decompression or a blade breaks and cuts cabin in half..... I just know lately at least once a week the news has something bad to say about airlines or planes crashes. I am scared of flying but will be for the first time in Sept this channel made me realize planes are pretty safe just have to trust the captins and crew and with the tech we have now planes basically fly themselves
@@therealshaft9768 be sure to enjoy your first flight. Takeoff and landing are the exiting bits 😀. Just tell yourself that the pilots don’t want to crash any more than you do, they’ll certainly make sure nothing goes wrong. Unlike bad customer service from a shop, if the pilots do their job badly they have to suffer the consequences too.
@@moiraatkinson thank you 😊 only thing that I fear is going down over open water since I will be flying internationally because one thing I learned from Disater breakdown is that there are usually survivors but in all the cases I've seen there are none on open water unless it's close to the coast. That would suck to crash on open water and survive only to drift out to sea and be eaten by sharks, but it's weird I am excited/ scared but like most things after the first time it will be like nothing.
I provided air traffic control for that area of the North Sea for 6 years around the turn of the millennium and worked with the Tower controller who was providing ATC at the time of the crash. He said that the aircraft was there, he looked away for a second and when he turned back, it was gone.
My only real nitpick is the name of the oil platform. It's not the 'Brent Platform C'. It was called the 'Brent Charlie'. There were four platforms in the Brent field (five of you count the Brent Spar) and they were named (north to south) the Brent Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta - the first four letters of the ICAO phonetic alphabet. Also I've been in UK ATC or more than 25 years and the pronunciation of the helicopter's name in the video is correct (at least in UK civilian ATC). The difference may be between countries or between military and civil aviation, but the double 'o' sound in my experience is the same as in 'shoo'.
The coastguard helicopter in the air that day was almost certainly a S61N registration G-BDOC. It served the area for nearly 25 years, retiring in 2010. It was occasionally swapped out for another of the same type when it needed maintenance so it is possible that it wasn't, but that chance is very, very small.
The commenters who said that offshore workers refused to fly on Chinooks after the crash are absolutely correct. The people I knew who had been around when they were flying called them 'Contra-Rotating Death Bananas'.
I spent time in the Gulf of Mexico flying to the offshore oil platforms in Bell 206s, part of the job after the last flight was to hose down and wash the salt off the machine, to keep corrosion at bay. It's a very corrosive environment. I was a fairly young helicopter pilot back then- I made the transition from airplanes in 1982. Boeing makes the helicopter today a much-improved version. It's a good machine, Columbia Helicopters out of Oregon operates the civil version. Helicopters need a lot of looking after, one of the reasons they are expensive to operate and to fly lots of moving parts. Good job.
I was at school (in Edinburgh) when this happened. To be in sight of home and a near total loss of all on board was such a tragedy.
The surviving helicopters now operate in Oregon with Columbia Helicopters, although not as passenger carriers.
TBH I wouldn't mind if channels like this and others I watch brand out into other forms of aviation as well as other transport disasters that happen on rail, road, and sea (and perhaps even aerospace but I'm sure most if not all rocket and shuttle accidents have been documented to hell by now)
UA-cam channel Fascinating Horror has some interesting transport and other disaster breakdown videos
The Chinook still flies here in California... It's also used as a Firefighting Chopper dropping tons of water. Both Military Bases here in Cerritos and San Diego still uses them as well.
It's so cool that you are branching out to other transportation disasters!
My only experience in a helicopter was when I was visiting Las Vegas and took part in a tour of the Grand Canyon, which included a helicopter ride down into the canyon, followed by a ride on the river at the bottom. It was definitely a bit of a freaky experience, but ended up being an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime moment.
As for this disaster video, it's another winner (not that that's a surprise anymore). Keep up the amazing work!
I love that you are expanding what you’re doing in terms of different modes of transportation. This was a great video! My heart goes out to the families left behind because of this incident.
A disaster like this was averted on a Coast Guard helicopter flying in the Bahamas several years ago, when it started making a funny noise and the pilots decided to return to the base over water. The Bahamian cops in the back demanded they land immediately, and as they were hovering to land, the entire transmission locked up when the helicopter was still about ten feet above the ground. It hit so hard it broke all the blades off as they flexed and hit the ground, but everyone survived with only minor injuries. I was there after that, and the lesson I learned was, when helicopters start making funny sounds, get them on the ground as quick as you can.
Yeah, the red rain ran out I'm betting. The hydraulics leak like a incontinent grandmother..
But WHY did it happen?? 😮
According to this video, they found out WHAT happened, not WHY. This was a professional outfit, years of operating in the North Sea, seawater erosion was a known issue. The Chinook have strict maintenance routines, operated by armies & companies all over the world in extreme conditions. And presumably the forward gears that didn't fail had no cracking issues when recovered.
So why did the other one fail? Was it badly manufactured, used for too long, not installed / inspected correctly, used the wrong lubricant, the protective housing was flawed...?
THAT is the 'why it happened' question. 🤔
It was explained. Watch it again. Metal fatigue from corrosion. Lack of maintenance.
@@wyomingadventures Watch it again. It says what caused the failure, it doesn't say the maintenance was done incorrectly, or the parts where inadequate for the environment etc...Plane crash investigations go into the history of the parts & usage, "Lack of maintenance." of what? That doesn't pinpoint the actual problem, if it was mistakes by the ground crew, inadequate maintenance schedules or badly designed parts for that environment. What was changed as a result?
@@JohnDoe-tx8lq more than likely it wasn’t inspected enough and/or Boeing didn’t expect the type of weather conditions with salt water and oil. Unfortunately aviation gets better after each accident.
The video does in fact indicate that the existing maintenance was inadequate (see 10:42 -- more stringent maintenance means the existing maintenance failed to catch an issue that could have been noticeable). You seem to be assuming that it must be a fluke for this to have happened. (Insisting repeatedly to know if the maintenance was done wrong, for example.) [edit: You seem to be assuming it must have been "maintenance done wrong" as opposed to "maintenance not adequate even if done right." Apologies for the wording.]
If you want more details, the accident report is the first source link in the description.
"(xiii) The 'in service' inspection programme, which was based on the results of tests on an aft transmission and previous service experience of both transmissions, was not adequate to reveal the impending failure of the forward bolted joint."
"(xv) Condition monitoring of the transmissions might have given indications which could have prevented the accident but suitable systems were not developed to the point where they were approved for operational use at the time of the accident."
"Underlying causes were the inadequacy of the hitherto accepted aircraft industry standard of test programme carried out by the manufacturers and the insufficiently stringent inspection programmes required by the FAA and the CAA.."
If you want to get technical, it's possible that the usage of (approved) modified parts of the assembly had a hand, but the details of that are sufficiently "in the weeds" that it's perfectly reasonable to just refer to what happened and the more stringent maintenance procedures -- especially seeing as its listed relevance comes back to improper inspection (a part of maintenance) in the Conclusions.
@@forgeatbash3081 Like I said, "According to this video" as opposed to going to a link and reading the report, and I haven't assumed a single thing.
We lost the smaller version of of the Boeing helicopter, CH 46, at Marble Mountain due to an oil line that was not reconnected to the forward transmission. It was at about 500 feet when we heard a loud bang and saw it crash in the surf. Miraculously a few survived the crash. Once that synchronization is interrupted, it is all over. I salute the pilot of the Brit 47 for attempting to control the aircraft with power adjustment even as they were in disastrous failure.
Horrifying.
One part is all it took.
RIP to the victims.
Side note: I worked on Gazelles. When we could no longer get transmission oil with whale additive, transmissions started dropping like flies. The "suitable substitute" was not up to par.
I always thought Gazelle's were awesome.
@@evryhndlestakn One was featured in the opening shots of Max Headroom, an obscure 80's tv show.
@@obsoleteprofessor2034 i remember the show well.
Cool idea. Somehow I don't see much if anything at all on heli incidents
I flew in G-BWFC about a month before it failed when working at the Clyde Field east of Aberdeen, the Chinooks were my favourite as they seemed so understressed, were bus-like inside and were brilliant in foggy weather as they could loiter around then land in a thinner patch and get folk moving, survivers of the same batch are still flying now with new owners ! Still love them today.
My dad called the Chinook the "shithook". He was in the vietnam war.
In the UK military they are known as "contra-rotating death bananas".
@@krashd Shithook just sounds better, even in mixed company.
oh a helicopter one! this is was really interesting, and also terrifying! great video, as always :)
There was a helicopter crash in Norway just a couple of years ago where the rotor simply fell off the helicopter and crashed also transporting people from platforms.
When i was a kid our neighbours son was on this. The first death i ever experienced. I used to watch him wash his Opel manta when he was home and we used to look up to him. Sad time for everyone. Thanks for doing this one!
I had over 30 years flying to rigs by helicopter all over the world. I always felt uncomfortable in them, especially flying at night close to the arctic circle. One rig I worked on in Malaysia we lost a Wessex and all 15 onboard offshore Kuantan around 1974. From that I went to a helirig on Tarakan island indonesia The first few times I flew to shetland was in a Dakota
As a complete helicopter non-expert, I'd always naïvely assumed the double rotors on the Chinook provided some redundancy in event of failure ... didn't realise they could instead so instantaneously lead to collision and disaster if sync failed! 😲 Thank you for all that you teach us Chloe, and for your always-respectful approach to these tragic events that affect people so deeply.
First thing I thought when watching this was "How do these helicopters prevent their propellers from colliding?"
To my surprise, this was exactly the cause of the disaster.
It seems so fundamentally stoopid from a design standpoint. There should be a much larger offset of the rotors to avoid the possibility of the blades hitting each other.
Rotors, not propellers.
No it wasn't the cause (undetected fatigue was) but rather the result, sorry for being pedantic but I work in this aviation sector.
@@someotherdude The blades collided because there was a catastrophic failure in the transfer of torque from the engines to the forward rotor blades, causing their speed to drop... so even if they had not collided with the aft rotor blades the aircraft still would have been doomed because the forward blades would have stalled.
Imagine the survivor guilt these 2 people suffer from. RIP to all those lost.
I would never feel guilt for cheating death
@@donaldsalkovick396 the thing they struggle with is, why did I survive?
@@donaldsalkovick396 there are some aspects of the human psyche that we have no control over. Cheating death on an individual event is one thing, but I think ‘survivors guilt’ is a form of PTSD and that has affected even the toughest among us!
i feel for the captain. usually captains die in crashes so they don’t have that guilt of “killing” many people
This looks like a maintenance failure, not pilot error. The chopper was completely uncontrollable once the gear failed.
Great job! I like that you're doing other kinds of disaster videos. Appreciate the pictures. Know it's not easy to find pictures of the exact of the vehicle involved in the incident. No criticism from me. I love what you're doing!
I live in Shetland and remember being in the seamanship class in school in Lerwick when the news started to filter in that there had been a helicopter crash.
The seamanship class actually looked out onto Lerwick harbour which at the time was a hive of oil industry activity and I seem to remember that we saw the Lerwick lifeboat racing out of the harbour..
I don't think you will find a more brutal environment for helicopters than operating around Shetland.
I remember many years ago one of the Coastguard Rescue Helicopter(S61) crew saying about a mission they'd been on during a hurricane in winter and he described it like this "at times we were being blown backwards".
Helicopters scare the crap outta me, I hate being in them. I like your different content as well, I haven't watched much stuff involving Helicopters. It's sad that there was nothing the pilots could have done to get through the crash, it's not like they did anything wrong- just doing their job and still have something so devastating happen...unreal. To be able to continue flying after something like that is also amazing though. You have a knack for not over explaining and making everything too technical in your stuff, this channel is one of my absolute favorite air accidents out of the others.
Very good video, well done. Cool to see the actual parts that failed in the Chinook gearbox, and the Diagrams of the parts. I've seen Chinooks in person Many times, and every time i see em, I'm still impressed, There so Big, and those Dual Rotors make for a Very Quick Helicopter, most people are surprised at how Fast they are. And the Lifting Capabilities are definitely there Strong Point. I enjoyed the Helicopter Footage, would Love to see some more.
My Father in law was on this very Chinook, RIP and to rub salt in the wounds the late Maxwell went on to try and rip off the victims families when it came to compensation...
A lad I worked with in the 80's worked on a north sea oil rig for a few years , worked at another place the bosses nephew was lost on Piper Alpha , my mates dad worked in the north sea and then went to a rig in the south China sea , hard work them jobs .
I remember this. I can also remember the fallout from the disaster and it's from that fallout that I began learning about metal fatigue caused by stress - it's fascinating topic.
As a pilot for 40 years I'm not interested in flying anything that has 35,000 moving parts.
5:13 would the crewmember "recall" or would he "recant"? Recant means to "say that one no longer holds an opinion or belief", that is, if he "recanted" then he is stating that information is false.
i used to work for columbia helicopters under the 234s and also 107s (both boeing and kawasaki variants) they are pretty reliable workhorses but do require a bit more maintenance than other whirlybirds but not as much as the sikorski skycranes or 41s... we did have a fatal crash when i worked there when a 107 had been completed after an overhaul out of the shop in aurora OR. somehow the forward and aft collective yokes were swapped with each other and nobody had caught it. they are very similar and only with great difficulty can they be told apart. on the first flight, somehow that mistake caused the ship to invert as well and crash. the two pilots and one of the mechanics were killed. may they RIP
I was in sunburgh that morning about to flly a BEA Viscount down to Glasgow. Our crew had dinner with the chinook crew the night before in the ‘Club’ where flight crews stayed in Shetland. The purser sat next to me and drew on his serviette the way the gearbox had been modified to sort out recent chinook problems. We were doing our preflight checks when overthe radio we heard off the accident, near the airport. Very quickly an RAF nimrod was on site, very calmly organising the search and rescue.
Interesting fact, the gearboxes are rated for 30 minutes runtime following a total oil loss.
I work on the CH-47D/F models and the variant involved in this accident. This ACFT is actually a BV234 not the military version. Boeing Vertol built several of this based off the Ch-47C models. It was basically a super C with extended fuel tanks and air conditioning. Notice the scoop on the front r/h side. And the square windows. Columbia Helicopters in Oregon operates the remaining airframes in existence today for logging, construction, passenger transportation and fire fighting. Interestingly, this ACFT is know as salty dog, due to the accident. Another BV234 crashed in Peru just after takeoff. A rear blade failed. After the investigation it was found that failed blade was from salty dog. Good informative video tho. Just a bit more history for ya😉
Wait; you saying that the wreckage of this helicopter was salvaged and "usable" parts were put on other helicopters?
😲
The National Guard Unit out of Pendleton Oregon plucked our HH-60 off of Mt Hood in 2002 with their Ch-47. We trained with them for years.
Helicopter crashes are so much scarier than plane, so less survivable.
If you’re interested in Scottish helicopter disasters there’s also Bond Offshore Helicopters Flight 85N, it happened off the NE coast and we have a memorial for the crash in Aberdeen (my city).
If you have PlaneFinder or FlightRadar24, you should just watch Aberdeen international airport, we have a LOT of helicopters leaving/returning every day that go out to oil fields, it’s a very busy airport.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_Offshore_Helicopters_Flight_85N
Busiest heliport on Earth in fact.
Having lived in Aberdeen as a child I remember these massive helicopters flying offshore. Full load of workers and a huge container on slings underneath. Quite a sight to see as a small child, we lived beside Aberdeen airport and heliport. If memory serves me right it was the largest heliport in the world. At one point there was 4 different companies operating helicopter flights to the oil rigs alone. The skies were buzzing with different types of helicopters.
I don’t know what’s scarier flying these helicopters over the ocean or working on an oil rig, especially sat divers?
Officially the busiest heliport in the world 👍
They didn't fly with a full load of oil workers AND a container slung underneath ??
We have chinooks land over here in Portland, Oregon every once in awhile. They shake the ground when they fly over our neighborhood! 😮
Great helicopter the wocka wocka, I loved every trip in them, I wish there'd been more.
I've always wondered what would happen if the rotors got out of sync. Now I know & it's kind of what I expected.
I had never seen a ch-47 used in a commercial role in Europe before. That's awesome.
My dad worked on the body recovery of this crash , the only time he ever talked about it was about the one man they didn't bring home
Great video and really well researched and put together.
Apparently only helicopters with twin engines are allowed to work offshore, but these two engines are always coupled to a single transmission and it's always the transmission that fails on them, go figure!
@Benji P
Yeah, never did understand the logic behind the requirement for two engines but one Gbox, it wouldn't matter if the thing had 57 engines.
More likely to have a engine failure then gear box. You only hear about the gear box ones because everyone dies😂 ya never hear about the engine failure because they make it back
Anton, I would suggest looking up survivorship bias. Engines fail a lot more often than transmissions, which is why you have the dual engine requirement. While I'm sure it would be nice to have dual transmissions you can't really drive a single rotor with two separate gearboxes at the same time.
@@caracalfloppa4997
Do you have some proof that these extremely reliable jet turbine engines are susceptible to failure, I was under the impression that JT's had few moving parts hence their extreme reliability and their problems were all to do with high temps rather than torque or torsion.
It would seem to me that two engines under moderate to high load channeling all their torque through one Gbx would place enormous stresses on that gearbox which is absolutely chockabloc full of fast moving low tolerance moving parts in direct contact with each other.
@@antonrudenham3259 I'm not making the claim that they are susceptible to failure, just that the gearboxes are even less so.
Not even necessarily in a catastrophic sense, but in the sense that sometimes you can see power fluctuations and you need the flexibility to be able to throttle that engine down to recover without falling out of the sky.
Gearboxes are extremely robust because they have to be. The one in the video only failed because of what was likely years of corrosion that went unnoticed due to inadequate maintenance. And really, these transmissions are remarkably simple. They don't have to switch gears during operation at all.
The BV234 was a remarkable helicopter which was just as safe as any other helicopter operating in the North sea.i was involved as an engineer maintaining these aircraft and can speak from experience. Yes it required a lot of maintenance to keep it safely flying, but no more than any other helicopter operating in that sector.
The transmissions in helicopters don’t shift, they reduce RPM from +/-12000 rpm of the engines to 225 rpm of the rotor blades in stages.
There was a very similar Chinook crash in the German city of Mannheim in 1982 while flying with a group of parachutists. 46 people died it in that crash, 41 passengers and 5 crew. Making it deadlier than the Brent Chinook crash.
There was nothing the pilots could do is why I don't ride on helicopters. Mechanical failures on planes can often be recovered. There is rarely anything you can do for a helicopter.
Yeah I thought this was really interesting. I followed the story and the breakdown just fine.
Keep up the good work
another great video Chloe!! thank you for producing some great content that you genuinely work hard on!
You're so welcome!
I happen to know Mr Pushp Vaid, this man is an Indian war hero and could not do anything about this accident.
He's done some really heroic flying and it was shocking to hear how this pilot was treated by the helicopter operator.
What did the operator do to him?
I live in Shetland and I remember this event well.
I've often thought that the Chinook would make a great flying motor home. Land it wherever you want, pull open the side awning, pull out the bar-b-que and lawn chairs and enjoy the weekend. Pack up and fly to another location for a change of scenery.
The word is, ‘recount’. ‘Recant’ means to change your mind.
BAH/BIH introduced the BV234 in around 1981. They had 6 - G-BISN, 'SO* (*which had a controlled & successful ditch in the N.Sea in 1984), 'SP, 'SR; GBJAC & the ill-fated G-BWFC subject of this tragedy. Were used to various installations, but principally for Shell mainly to the Brent, but also likes of Fulmar/Clyde/Auk. Aberdeen in the 80s had multiple crew change flights to the rigs & installations, & was the busiest heliport in the world with BAH, Bristow, B-Cal Helis & North Scottish. Still is busy today, but not as it used to be. Listening to the transmissions in the 80s, I recall hearing Capt. Vaid on the Chinooks.
I crewed chinooks in Viet Nam with Pipesmoke Recovery. We picked up aircraft that had gone down.
The flights on the BA Chinooks to the Shell Brent Field used to have a stewardess serving coffee, tea etc.--One girl I remember was called-Bonnie !
I rode the helicopter that shuttled between NY's JFK and the Pan Am building. The ticket was $5.00 for servicemen in uniform which was approximately 1/3 the taxi fare. This was in 1967 & '68. They had an accident in the early 1970's that caused them to cancel the service. I believe the fare for civilians was $10.00 which went up to $15.00 which caused the military fare to rise to $7.50. Still a great deal. I believe they were using the CH-47 type helicopter or the smaller Navy version which was a CH-46. Anyway, it was a great, quick trip and a fun flight.
I would take the express bus from Norfolk's Naval Operations Base to the Port Authority terminal in NYC. Take the subway to the Pan Am Building. Elevator to the roof. Helicopter to JFK, take the shuttle to Providence, RI and be home by 9:00 P.M. if I wanted to spend the weekend in RI where my parents lived. I had an interesting young life with the Navy.
I took those flights in 1967 & 1968. It was less expensive than a taxi and much faster.
Man this would be horrifying.
Those gears have to be made to the highest tolerances and with the best alloys available. But even then bad things can happen
Hi good video
The helikopter was a Boeing 234 Chinook and not the CH-47 ,the CH -47 is the military varient and the 234 is the civilan varient .
British International Helikoptere did suffet a fatal accident after the Chinook accident ,in 1992 6 people lost there live including the 3 passengers when Sikorsky S-61 was manouvering over the deck to land on an oil installation in the North Sea and the tail rotor came into collision with a Crane and crashed to the deck and later rolled over in to the Sea.
There have been Many accidents in the North Sea involving helicopters both UK and Norway.
S-61 crash was on the Brent Spar, if I remember correctly.
We had a MH-53 sitting in our hanger that was in several very large cardboard boxes. The word was it came back from a civilian rework facility with the rotor head safety wired backwards, the rotor head separated in flight over the Chesapeake bay and there where no survivors.
RIP Norsemen .
There was an unconfirmed rumor that one of the pilot’s legs sat in one of the boxes for several weeks.
maintenance of multi mission civilian helos operating on high sodium environment (like to & from off shore oil rigs) have additional maintenance intervals that include extensive checks for fatigue cracks sooner than later . . . the circular bearing of the MH-47A Chinook forward rotor with the fatigue crack shows like it hasn't been touched in a long time . . .
2:16 ERROR: That's a CH-46 Sea Knight, not a Chinook. Great video anyways 👍🏼👍🏼
The second syllable of Chinook rhymes with "book."
Shin hook
This is the best video ever disaster breakdown
Thank You!
During this time I worked within the oil industry, traveling back and forth from the oil installations by Chinook was hated by mostly everyone I knew, including myself. After the accident offshore workers refused to travel via Chinook, the oil companies had to scramble to utilise oil supply vessels to get the workforce out to the installation, a very long sea journey. Globally the Chinook had many, many catastrophic accidents.
My brother was a suppply boat skipper at the time of this. Accident. One 24hr trip on a supply boat was usually sufficient to convince the oil workers that choppers were much nicer to ride than even the largest suppply boats.
Now mostly Sikorsky S92A's,
are used
It’s definitely sad that this happened, but it is definitely surprising anyone survived at all, so that was quite shocking to learn. Great video.
bulkhead behind pilot. he and guy sitting behind him were the 2 that survived
Yes, like a jump seat that faced backwards, he must have seen and experienced the unimaginable God bless him.
It's a Chinook - the sheep of the helicopter world. It exists to be found, metaphorically, upside down in a clarty hole, dead as a doornail with 4 legs in the air. Even British squaddies aren't fond of them and I know from personal experience, they're not the brightest on the planet...
They're famous for the hydraulics, if you aren't getting a gentle patter of red rain, then the hydraulics are empty.. This isn't good...
I'd feel safer on a clapped out De Havilland Comet I.
Contra-rotatating-death-banana is a perfect description by the way.
salty sea air will always cause corrosion on metal- it is just a matter of time before the failure occurs.
A loud BANG when flying on a helo is NEVER a good thing...
I keep getting sucked into these computer generated cartoons, it is a time wasting annoyance.
I wouldn't take a helicopter to pick up Powerball winnings.
That's honestly insane that someone survived because they're just happened to be a training search-and-rescue what amazing training huh
Also if you want to see another strange aircraft look up a Catbird Gulfstream GIV it has a custom cargo door built into the fuselage
This civilian version of the chinook is called boeing vertol 234 also shares its firefighting capabilities with the standard Chinook
Germany opted to buy a large number of Chinook helicopters for its military this year....hopefully the design of that transmission gear was revised in the meantime. The connection of a pinion and a beveled gear does not seem the best way to transmit so much horse power to me.
At 5:14 there’s a big difference between “recant” (what I heard and what’s in the captions) and “recount” (which was intended) - they have almost opposite meanings. Recount means you’re telling the story of what happened. But recant means refuting (taking back) something you previously said or believed.
Don't know much about helicopters, but always thought if I was rich and could do it, I'd buy one to get around in. Lol. This is a sad story and I don't mean to make light of this tragedy.
Thank you for your time and work on these videos! I love this channel ❤️
Ok you guy's help me out, back in the late 70's or early 80's I rode on a Twin Rotor Helicopter that belonged to New York Airways. This was an air taxi from one airport to another in NYC. What kind of Helicopter was it?