Helicopter Hovering Incident Injures Ground Personnel in Switzerland (HB-ZRE)

Incident Overview and Aircraft Details On May 24, 2010, a Eurocopter MBB-BK 117 C-2 (EC145) helicopter, registered as HB-ZRE and operated by Schweizerische Luft-Ambulanz AG, was involved in an incident in the Chaltbrunnental valley, Himmelried/SO, approximately 13 km south of Basel. The aircraft, a twin-engine multi-purpose helicopter manufactured in 2003, was conducting a commercial VFR mission in hovering flight at an altitude of 350 m/M. The pilot, a Swiss national born in 1959, held a commercial pilot license for helicopters and had over 10,300 total flight hours. The helicopter was not damaged in the incident, and there was no third-party property damage reported.