North Spring Fire Rotor Strike 2018

On July 8, 2018 at approximately 1330, a contract Chinook Helicopter was returning from a water dropping mission. The crew’s plan once their helicopter landed and shut down was to refuel, check levels, and prep the aircraft to return to the fire. Once the Chinook’s rotors had come to a complete stop, the crew was prepared and eager to check their assigned sectors and all required fluid levels. During this shut-down process, an error code for Engine #2 indicated a failure. This code pointed to a cannon plug issue, which was pulled, inspected, reinserted, and the error code cleared. To complete the shut-down process, the Pilot in Command had to pull the fuel lever, which essentially starved the engine of fuel until engine shut down was complete. Once the rotors came to a complete stop and the engines completely shut down, the Chinook’s mechanic crew swiftly went to work.

Two of the crew’s mechanics climbed on top of the aircraft to complete their tasks. Upon hearing the engine spool up, the crew chief immediately wanted eyes on top of the aircraft, knowing that there might be crew personnel engaged on top. Two crew mechanics were indeed on top of the aircraft, aft of the front rotor. Hearing the engines spool up, several support personnel noticed these two mechanics and began yelling: “Get down! Get down!” As the engine was spooling up and the rotors began to turn, one of the mechanic crew members was struck in the head, impacting the side of this individual’s face/head and their safety helmet. The crewmember immediately went limp and slumped down.

RLS, Aviation, Helicopters, Helicopter Incident or Accident