What happened
On the morning of the incident, a pilot departed from the Johan Coetzee heliport to conduct a search operation. The mission was initiated to locate an individual who had been swept away by a flooded river. While performing low-level flight along the path of the river, the main rotor blades of the MBB-105-CBS-4 struck telephone wires that were stretched across the water. The impact was followed by intense vibrations throughout the aircraft. The pilot managed to perform an emergency landing in an open field situated on the riverbank. There were no fatalities and no injuries reported among the three people on board.
The investigation
SACAA AIID investigators examined the circumstances surrounding the contact with the wires. The investigation established that the telephone poles supporting the lines were obscured by trees on the riverbank, making the wires difficult to detect during the low-altitude flight. Following the incident, the aircraft, registered as ZS-HUZ, was recovered the following day and transported via road back to the Johan Coetzee heliport.
Findings
- The primary cause of the rotor strike was the difficulty in observing the telephone wires due to the obscured nature of the supporting poles.
- The presence of dense vegetation on the riverbanks prevented the pilot from identifying the infrastructure spanning the river.