Incident Overview
On 4 January 1999 at 1450 UTC, a Schweizer 269C-1 registered G-BXTM was involved in an accident at Oxford Airport. The helicopter was conducting a training flight with an instructor and a student on board. Both occupants sustained minor injuries, and the aircraft suffered extensive damage.
Flight Details
The helicopter had been operating on the airfield, and the student pilot had completed three circuits. The instructor decided to discontinue the training because the wind was gusting to an estimated 20 to 30 knots. He took control with the intention of making a towering takeoff, transitioning into wind, and positioning the helicopter to cross the runway and return to the landing pad.
Events Leading to the Hard Landing
As the helicopter climbed through 20 feet during the towering takeoff, the instructor realized that he was overpitching and that the engine RPM was falling below the lower limit for power on. He reduced collective pitch to regain RPM but immediately noticed a very high sink rate, which he considered was probably caused by a brief lull in the wind. He increased collective pitch in an attempt to avoid ground contact but was unable to prevent the helicopter from striking the ground hard vertically and with a slight rearward velocity.
Aftermath
The aircraft then slewed and rolled to the right, coming to rest on its right side. Both the instructor and student extricated themselves from the aircraft, the latter with some difficulty, and awaited the arrival of the emergency services. There was no fire.