10 August 2005 helicopter crash near Tallinn

From Freepedia

A Sikorsky S-76C+ helicopter of Copterline enroute to Helsinki, Finland crashed into the sea near Tallinn, Estonia on August 10 2005, three to four minutes after taking off. On board were two Finnish crew members and 12 passengers: six Finns, four Estonians and two Americans. There were no survivors. The Sikorsky S-76C+ has emergency pontoons for water landings but they were not deployed, and no distress signals were heard before the crash. The reason for the disaster is still unknown.

Rescuers reached the site in less than 10 minutes to find only one of the main rotor blades and an oil slick on the water. The wreckage of the helicopter itself was located by sonar operators on the Estonian Maritime Administration vessel Eva-320, who indicated that the aircraft was intact at a depth of roughly 43 meters. Two Estonian deep-sea divers following an earlier unmanned robotic vehicle reported that the bodies of the passengers were inside the craft. Thirteen bodies were retrieved and the body of one of the pilots was missing. The recovery mission was hindered by rough weather conditions. The wreckage of the copter was lifted on August 13 2005 and transported to Tallinn for investigation. The missing body was not found in the searches performed by the Estonian and Finnish authorities, but on August 25 it was finally found and retrieved by volunteer divers some distance away from the accident site.

The Estonian authorities denied sending the flight data recorder of the copter to the United States because the copter was manufactured there, thus possibly creating a conflict of interest. The technical investigation was performed in the United Kingdom instead. The voice recording indicated that the pilots realized that something was wrong only 35 seconds before the copter hit the sea, and that they did attempt to send a mayday message.

The accident investigation board published a preliminary report on September 14th. They have for now ruled out most possibilities of physical damage before the helicopter hit water, including sabotage and collision with a flock of birds. The investigation now concentrates on the possibilities of human error or problems in the aircraft control mechanisms.