What happened
On December 18, 2021, at approximately 10:25 local time, an Aerospatiale SA 315B Lama, registration HB-XII, was performing a private flight under Visual Flight Rules (VFR). The helicopter departed from the Unterrothorn mountain landing site (LSYU) with the intention of landing at the Alphubel mountain landing site (LSVF) in the Valais region of Switzerland.
During the approach to the destination, the aircraft experienced a hard landing. While the impact resulted in heavy damage to the aircraft, there were no injuries reported among the pilot or the three passengers on board. No third-party injuries or property damage occurred during the event.
The investigation
The Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board (SUST) initiated an investigation into the incident to determine the circumstances surrounding the impact. The preliminary investigation focused on the flight path from Unterrothorn to Alphubel and the technical state of the aircraft at the time of the landing.