What happened
On 2/23/2002, an Aerospatiale SA 330J helicopter, registration ZS-RNJ, was conducting a commercial salvage operation near St Lucia. The aircraft was flying from Richards Bay to the deck of the *Jolly Rabino*, a shipwrecked vessel stranded off the North Coast of KwaZulu-Natal. The mission involved a recovery team tasked with draining oil and hazardous chemicals from the ship to prevent environmental damage.
Due to the steep angle of the vessel and rough sea conditions, landing on the deck was impossible. Instead, the crew established a hover over the port side of the ship to hoist passengers and equipment down. During this operation, the helicopter began an uncontrolled anticlockwise rotation. The aircraft subsequently struck the deck of the ship and caught fire. The impact caused the tail section to separate and fall into the sea, while the cabin area impacted the deck. While there were zero fatalities, the accident resulted in 4 serious injuries among the occupants.
The investigation
Investigators analyzed video footage captured from a nearby safety boat to reconstruct the sequence of events. The footage revealed that the helicopter's hover position was directly above large, empty sugar bags used for debris collection. The main rotor downwash was observed causing these bags to move violently.
As the aircraft began to spin, the footage showed an object—potentially part of the tail rotor drive shaft assembly—being projected toward the front of the aircraft, passing the open right-hand cabin door at high speed. The investigation focused on three primary theories regarding the tail rotor failure: the ingestion of a dislodged sugar bag, the loss of an object from the open cabin, or an internal mechanical failure of the drive assembly or gearbox.