The Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center has published a report written by individuals in the Rocky Mountain Geographic Area about an incident that happened July 8, 2018 after a Chinook helicopter that had been dropping water on a fire landed to refuel. As the pilot was shutting down the engines an error code for engine #2 indicated a failure. This code pointed to a cannon plug issue, which was pulled, inspected, reinserted, and the error code cleared.
Here is an excerpt of what happened after the Pilot in Command shut down the engines:
…Two of the crew’s mechanics climbed on top of the aircraft to complete their tasks. These tasks include, but are not limited to, visually checking certain fluid levels within a five minute window for the most accurate readings. As the crew members were busy at work and focused on their assigned tasks, the PIC began going through the engine start-up process to see if the error code issue was completely resolved.
Upon hearing the engine spool up, the crew chief immediately wanted eyes on top of the aircraft, knowing that there might be crew personnel engaged on top. Two crew mechanics were indeed on top of the aircraft, aft of the front rotor. Hearing the engines spool up, several support personnel noticed these two mechanics and began yelling: “Get down! Get down!” As the engine was spooling up and the rotors began to turn, one of the mechanic crew members was struck in the head, impacting the side of this individual’s face/head and their safety helmet. The crewmember immediately went limp and slumped down.
The second crewmember was able to grab the struck mechanic in a bear hug to prevent them both from falling off the aircraft. Crewmember 2 stated that he “fundamentally supported and slid partway down the aircraft and then pushed off the fuel tank near the bottom.” He explained that this response was based on his military training. Crewmember 2, still supporting the injured mechanic, fell onto the pavement—both landing safely. At this point, the injured mechanic sat up, stunned. Simultaneously, the PIC heard the noise outside the aircraft and immediately initiated complete engine shut-down…
After being checked by a paramedic at the helibase, the injured crewmember was driven to a hospital by a company driver to be examined. The individual was treated and released from the hospital the same afternoon.
Following the accident and before any other flight operations continued, the crew had a “safety stand-down”. This provided the crew with an opportunity to establish a clear understanding of what happened, how operations will continue moving forward, and closure for anyone who may have been traumatically affected by the incident.
Discussions within the company after the incident centered on safety meetings, communications, and continuing the use of helmets.
The root cause appears to be very poor communications, excessive focus on a short turn around, and exceptionally poor SA by the PIC of the helicopter. From the report it is evident that the crew was “anxious” to get back into the air so they cut corners. It is never an acceptable practice to loose SA pr allow your desire to make the big flying bucks push you into bad decision territory.