What happened
On 18 April 2022, an ELA 09 Junior gyroplane was conducting a non-commercial cross-country flight near Ecaussines, Belgium. The flight was part of a special event intended to fly over an orphanage garden for an Easter egg hunt. While the aircraft was positioned over the garden, a passenger threw a handful of eggs, at which point the pilot experienced a sudden, apparent loss of engine power.
This fluctuation triggered a rapid descent. Although the engine power eventually recovered, the aircraft was already at too low an altitude to maneuver effectively. The pilot attempted a right-hand turn to land within the garden, but the aircraft's high vertical speed caused it to bounce upon impact. During this rebound, the main rotor struck low-hanging tree branches. The engine was still at a high power setting during the impact, causing the gyroplane to roll onto its right side. Both occupants escaped the wreckage without injury, though the aircraft sustained substantial damage to the rotor blades, mast, and propeller.
The investigation
AAIU(Be) investigators utilized witness smartphone videos to reconstruct the flight path and determine the aircraft's altitude and speed. By triangulating the position of a nearby 30-meter telephone mast, investigators calculated that the gyroplane was flying at approximately 300 feet AGL at the time of the power fluctuation.
Analysis of the video footage revealed that the aircraft's airspeed was approximately 41 km/h, which is near the minimum level flight speed for this model. The investigation also examined the engine's performance, noting a visible change in propeller RPM that coincided with the passenger's actions. Investigators found no evidence of mechanical deficiency or carburetor icing that could have caused the power loss, and ruled out interference with the throttle controls by the passenger.
Findings
- The pilot was flying at a very low altitude and low airspeed, placing the aircraft in a flight regime known as the backside of the power curve (or the region of reversed commands), where increasing pitch to slow down actually requires more power to prevent descent.
- A temporary loss of engine power occurred, though the specific cause could not be determined.
- The aircraft was too low and too slow to recover from the descent using standard procedures, such as lowering the nose to regain airspeed.
- The pilot did not reduce the engine to idle before touchdown, which contributed to the violent impact and the subsequent rotor strike on tree branches.