N9488F

HISTORY OF FLIGHT

On June 13, 2000, at 0007 central daylight time, a Schweizer 269C helicopter, N9488F, operated by the City of Topeka, Kansas, Police Department, was destroyed when it departed controlled flight and impacted the terrain. A post crash fire ensued. Night visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The flight was being conducted as public use under 14 CFR Part 91. No flight plan was on file. The police pilot and observer on board the helicopter were fatally injured. The local flight originated at the Phillip Billard Municipal Airport, Topeka, Kansas, on June 12, 2000, at 2300.

At the time of the accident, the helicopter, Topeka Police Department Unit 400, was providing airborne surveillance support to a Topeka police officer ground unit, Unit 448, which had responded to an alarm at Lowe's, a building materials supply store located at 1622 Southwest (SW) Arvonia Place.

The Officer-in-Charge of the Police Helicopter Unit said that for a call as this, the pilot would push the speed up en route to get there as soon as possible. The altitude en route would be 500 feet above ground level (agl). As the helicopter approached the area, the pilot would descend to approximately 200 feet agl. On arrival, the helicopter would enter a right-hand turning orbit, so that the observer in the right seat could position the bottom-mounted forward looking infrared camera (FLIR) so as to observe parts of the building where a suspect might be, on his monitor. On entering the orbit, the pilot would reduce his airspeed to 50 knots.

At 0004:09, Unit 448, in the Lowe's, contacted Unit 400, orbiting overhead. "48, 400." Unit 400 responded, "Go ahead." Unit 448, "Yeah ... sir, if you could check this garden area ... they did leave this door open again."

At 0004:28, Unit 400 to Unit 448, "Yeah, we've been checking it ever since, ah, we've been here, ah, we haven't seen anybody moving."

At 0007:17, a voice identified as the observer on board Unit 400 exclaimed, "Other way, other way, other way!" Topeka Police Department dispatch responded, "400?" At 0007:21, Unit 400 made an unintelligible call over the radio. This was the last radio transmission from the helicopter.

Several witnesses on the ground observed the helicopter as it was orbiting in the area, and when it went down.

One witness said that the helicopter was heading "in a northwest direction" when it "started spinning, going down on the ground, over by Lowe's." The witness described the helicopter going down as making three, counter-clockwise descending turns. "I thought they might get it under control, but it was going down pretty quick. After that, I heard a thud."

Another witness said that the bright lights from the helicopter caught her attention. When she noticed, she saw the helicopter spinning. The witness said that it seemed like the helicopter stopped. "It sounded funny ... like it was choking, like it was running out of power. It started going down, and we heard the crash."

A third witness said that the helicopter had been flying around the area for about half-an-hour. "I heard the helicopter making a noise as if the power was going out, like stopping and starting, stopping and starting. I looked up, and he was out of control." The witness described a counter-clockwise turn. "He went ... the nose went straight down. I heard a big crunch, crash."

Several other witnesses provided similar accounts of the accident. Their statements are provided as an addendum to this report.

PERSONNEL INFORMATION

The pilot held a private pilot certificate with ratings for single-engine land airplane, and rotorcraft.

According to the pilot's logbook and records provided by the City of Topeka Police Department, the pilot had 378.2 total flying hours. Of that total, 229.3 hours were in single-engine land airplanes, and 148.9 hours were in helicopters. All of the pilot's helicopter time was in the Schweizer 269C-model helicopter. The pilot's logbook also showed that 66.5 hours of the pilot's total helicopter time was at night.

The pilot's last activity in airplanes was a biennial flight review, conducted on August 12, 1989. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airman records and the pilot's personal records reflect no flying activity between August 12, 1989, and March 22, 2000, when the pilot began helicopter training for the department.

The pilot joined the Topeka Police Department in 1992, where he performed patrol officer duties. The pilot was selected to the helicopter unit as a promotion. He began helicopter training on March 22, 2000.

The pilot successfully passed a flight check for his rotorcraft rating on April 22, 2000. The pilot had logged 57.8 hours on completion of his training and flight check. The pilot began flying routine patrol on April 25, 2000.

According to the department's policy on student pilot supervision, new pilots were paired with another experienced helicopter pilot, until logging a total of 105 hours, minimum, helicopter time, "before being permitted to fly solo police operations in make and model insured herein." On May 29, 2000, the pilot began flying with his non-rated observer. According to his pilot logbook, prior to his routine patrol flights on May 29, 2000, the pilot had logged 105.0 total helicopter hours.

AIRCRAFT INFORMATION

The helicopter was owned and operated by the City of Topeka Police Department, and was used for conducting routine airborne patrol in support of police ground vehicle units, between the hours of 1800 and 0400.

The helicopter was certified for single-pilot operations from the left seat. The control pedals, collective and cyclic were not installed in the right side of the helicopter. Instead, a FLIR camera monitor was installed at the right seat. The FLIR camera unit was mounted on a swivel mast, on the bottom, right front side of the helicopter. The camera's position was controlled manually, by the observer. A push-to-talk intercom/radio rocker-switch was installed on the floor, at the observer's right foot.

The helicopter was being maintained under a continuous maintenance program run by the Topeka Police Department's Uniform Division, Helicopter Unit. The helicopter had undergone a 100-hour inspection on June 7, 2000. The airframe time recorded at the 100-hour inspection was 5,559.6 hours.

The airframe time determined at the time of the accident was 5627.0 hours.

METEOROLOGICAL INFORMATION

At 0018, the routine aviation weather report for Phillip Billard Airport, located 8 statute miles from the accident site on a 075 degree magnetic heading, was clear skies, visibility 10 statute miles, temperature 81 degrees F, dew point 70 degrees F, winds 180 degrees at 12 knots, and altimeter 29.88 inches of Mercury (Hg).

A Topeka Police Department officer, assigned to the Helicopter Unit, stated that earlier that evening (June 12, 2000), while he was in downtown Topeka, he noticed the wind. "The wind usually diminishes as the sun does down." The officer estimated the winds to be from the south, "maybe favoring the southeast", at approximately 20 knots. At the accident site, the officer said that the winds were strong out of the south. He estimated that on the ground, they were at least 15 knots.

WRECKAGE AND IMPACT INFORMATION

The Safety Board's on scene investigation began on June 13, 2000, at 1540.

The accident site was located in a field on top of a mesa, approximately 1/2 mile northwest of a "Lowe's" building supply warehouse and lumberyard, located at 1622 SW Arvonia Place, and approximately 1 mile west-northwest of Wanamaker Road, a main north-south thoroughfare on the west side of the city of Topeka, Kansas.

The accident site began with a 48-inch wide and 56-inch long ground scar running east to west. The ground scar was 13 inches at its deepest point on the south edge. Within the ground scar were numerous pieces of clear and gray-tinted Plexiglas, small pieces of white-colored fiberglass, an area of shattered silver-reflective and clear glass, a notepad, the FLIR camera, small pieces of the center part of the helicopter's left skid, and a 39-inch front section of the right skid. Grass within the area of the ground scar was covered with oil. A spray of oil fanned outward for 10 feet from the northwest edge of the ground scar, in a 40-degree arc.

Approximately 36 inches southeast of the ground scar was the front section of the left skid and a 40-inch long section of a control tube.

On the north edge of the ground scar rested a 51-inch long aft section of the helicopter's right skid.

Approximately 10 feet west of the ground scar were two parallel-running slash-scars in the ground. The first of these scars extended northwestward for 6 feet. This scar was 11 inches wide, 3 inches deep, and cut into the dirt at a 40-degree angle to horizontal. The second slash-scar was 30 inches long and abruptly stopped at a 7-inch deep hole, with dirt and grass pushed up on the northwest end.

Resting 28 feet west of the west edge of the ground scar were several pieces of the cabin frame, large pieces of Plexiglas, a fire extinguisher, and the lower belt-drive idler pulley.

The helicopter main wreckage was located 10 feet northwest of the ground scar on a 295-degree magnetic heading. The main wreckage consisted of the remaining cabin, main rotor mast, rotor head and main rotor blades, the engine, transmission, tail boom, tail rotor, and support structure for the engine, cabin, main rotor system and tail boom. The main wreckage rested predominately on its left side and was oriented such that the remaining cabin, main rotor mast, and tail boom fell on a 245-degree magnetic heading.

The helicopter main wreckage rested on the south edge of an area of charred grass and dirt, approximately 18 feet long, running east to west, and extending northward from the helicopter for 15 feet.

The helicopter's cabin ...