Accident Overview
On 18 December 2013 at 13:50 UTC, a Eurocopter EC120B Colibri helicopter, registration CS-HEX, operated by Heliportugal, collided with powerlines in the vicinity of Marmelete, Monchique, Portugal. The accident was recorded as a powerline collision in the investigation report.
Aircraft and Operator
The helicopter involved was a Eurocopter EC120B Colibri, with Portuguese registration CS-HEX. The operator was Heliportugal. The aircraft configuration and maintenance details are described in the report's factual information sections.
Investigation
The Gabinete de Prevenção e Investigação de Acidentes com Aeronaves (GPIAA) conducted the safety investigation. The final report, number 09/ACCID/2013, was approved by the GPIAA Director on 30 June 2015. The report was published in both Portuguese and English, with the Portuguese text prevailing in case of discrepancies. According to the foreword, the investigation was a technical process aimed at accident prevention, not at apportioning blame or liability.
Report Structure
The accident report includes sections on factual information: history of the flight, injuries to persons, damage to aircraft, other damage, personnel information, aircraft information, meteorological information, aids to navigation, communications, aerodrome information, flight recorders, wreckage and impact information, medical and pathological information, fire, survival aspects, tests and research, organizational and management information, additional information, and investigation techniques. The report also contains analysis and conclusions. The cover photo was taken by Pedro Becken and sourced from airliners.net.
Probable Cause
The probable cause of the accident is not stated in the provided excerpt of the report.