The Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion is a heavy-lift helicopter operated by the United States military. As the Sikorsky S-80, it was developed from the CH-53 Sea Stallion, mainly by adding a third engine, adding a seventh blade to the main rotor, and canting the tail rotor 20°. It was built by Sikorsky Aircraft for the United States Marine Corps. The less common MH-53E Sea Dragon fills the United States Navy's need for long-range minesweeping or airborne mine countermeasures missions, and performs heavy-lift duties for the Navy. The Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion, which has new engines, new composite rotor blades, and a wider aircraft cabin, is set to replace the CH-53E.
The Sikorsky S-76 is a medium-size commercial utility helicopter designed and produced by the American helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft. It is the company's first helicopter specifically developed for the civilian market.
The Sikorsky S-92 is an American twin-engine medium-lift helicopter built by Sikorsky Aircraft for the civil and military helicopter markets. The S-92 was developed from the Sikorsky S-70 helicopter and has similar parts such as flight control and rotor systems.
Copterline Oy was Finland's largest helicopter airline established on 15 October 1990 as Copter Action and renamed to Copterline in 2000. In 2004 the company ferried over 75,000 passengers. On December 19, 2008, Copterline confirmed that it had ceased its scheduled service between Helsinki and Tallinn. On 15 February 2010, Copterline filed for bankruptcy, citing inability to keep the company profitable. Its head office was located on the grounds of Helsinki-Malmi Airport in Helsinki. In 2011, Line Support Oy, founded by mostly the same group as Copterline Oy, announced a resumption of service from September, operated by its Estonian subsidiary Copterline OÜ. On 9 September 2011, the first commercial flights were undertaken.
Enimex was an airline based in Tallinn, Estonia. It operated cargo and passenger charter flights, and wet lease operations worldwide. Its main base was Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport.
The Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane is an American twin-engine heavy-lift helicopter. It is the civil version of the United States Army's CH-54 Tarhe. It is currently produced as the S-64 Aircrane by Erickson Inc.
The Sikorsky S-61L and S-61N are civil variants of the SH-3 Sea King military helicopter. It was developed and produced by the American helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft.
In aviation, a brownout is an in-flight visibility restriction due to dust or sand in the air. In a brownout, the pilot cannot see nearby objects which provide the outside visual references necessary to control the aircraft near the ground. This can cause spatial disorientation and loss of situational awareness leading to an accident. Pilots have compared landing during brownouts to parallel parking an automobile with one's eyes closed.
Los Angeles Airways Flight 417 was a Sikorsky S-61 helicopter that crashed on August 14, 1968 in the city of Compton, California. All eighteen passengers and three crew members were killed. The aircraft was destroyed by impact and fire. According to the National Transportation Safety Board the probable cause of the accident was fatigue failure. The accident happened when the yellow blade, one of five main rotor blades, separated from the spindle that attached the blade to the rotor head. Following failure, the helicopter was uncontrollable and it fell to the ground. The fatigue crack originated in an area of substandard hardness and inadequate shot peening.
Carson Helicopters, Inc is a helicopter operating company based in Perkasie, Pennsylvania, United States. Carson operates a fleet of Sikorsky S-61 helicopters in aerial lift services and aerial firefighting. Carson is known for its development of the "Carson Blade" for the S-61 and H-3 Sea King. In 2010, Carson Helicopters, Inc. partnered with Sikorsky Aircraft to develop and manufacture the S-61T, an upgraded version of the S-61 helicopter.
Los Angeles Airways Flight 841 was a Sikorsky S-61 helicopter that crashed at 5:50 p.m. on Wednesday May 22nd 1968 in the city of Paramount, California. All twenty passengers and three crew members were killed. The aircraft was destroyed by impact and fire. The probable cause of the accident was a mechanical failure in the blade rotor system, which then allowed one blade to strike the side of the fuselage. The other four blades were then thrown out of balance and all five rotor blades broke and then the rear fuselage and tail separated from the rest of the airframe. The cause of the mechanical failure is undetermined. At the time, it was the worst helicopter-related accident in U.S. aviation history, not to be surpassed until the 1986 Grand Canyon mid-air collision which killed 25.
British Airways Helicopters was a British helicopter airline from 1964 to 1986.
G-BJVX, a Norwich-based commercial Sikorsky S-76A helicopter operated by Bristow Helicopters, crashed in the evening of 16 July 2002 in the southern North Sea while it was making a ten-minute flight between the gas production platform Clipper and the drilling rig Global Santa Fe Monarch, after which it was to return to Norwich Airport.
Cougar Helicopters Flight 91 was a scheduled flight of a Cougar Sikorsky S-92A which ditched on 12 March 2009 en route to the SeaRose FPSO in the White Rose oil field and Hibernia Platform in the Hibernia oilfield off the coast of Newfoundland 55 kilometres (34 mi) east-southeast of St. John's, Newfoundland. Of the eighteen aboard, only one survived.
On August 8, 2009, at 11:53 a.m. (15:53 UTC), nine people died when a tour helicopter and a small private airplane collided over the Hudson River near Frank Sinatra Park in Hoboken, New Jersey, United States. The aircraft were in an area known as the "Hudson River VFR Corridor", which extends from the surface of the river to altitudes of 800 to 1,500 ft at various locations along the Hudson River in the immediate area of New York City. Within this corridor, aircraft operate under visual flight rules (VFR), under which the responsibility to see and avoid other air traffic rests with the individual pilots rather than with the air traffic controller.
The Grand Canyon mid-air collision occurred when Grand Canyon Airlines Flight 6, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, collided with a Bell 206 helicopter, Helitech Flight 2, over Grand Canyon National Park on June 18, 1986. All 25 passengers and crew on board the two aircraft were killed. It remains the deadliest accident involving a helicopter on United States soil, surpassing the crash of Los Angeles Airways Flight 841 in 1968, which killed 23 people.
On 29 April 2016, a CHC Helikopter Service Eurocopter EC225 Super Puma helicopter, carrying oil workers from the Gullfaks B platform in the North Sea, crashed near Turøy, a Norwegian coastal island 36 kilometres (22 mi) from the city of Bergen. The main rotor assembly detached from the aircraft and the fuselage plummeted to the ground, exploding on impact. All thirteen people on board were killed.
On 8 September 2017, a Schweizer 269C helicopter crashed after an uncontrolled descent during a power-off landing attempt at the Flying W Airport in Medford, New Jersey, United States. The aircraft had experienced engine trouble during a local sightseeing flight for the benefit of passenger Troy Gentry, cofounder and member of the popular American country music band Montgomery Gentry, which was scheduled to perform at a resort at the airport later that day. The pilot died at the scene; Gentry was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital.
Estonian Safety Investigation Bureau is the transport safety agency of Estonia, headquartered in Tallinn. It is under the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications. It investigates aviation, maritime, and rail accidents.
The 2016 Bell 525 Relentless prototype crash occurred during a test flight on July 6, 2016, near Italy, Texas, destroying the prototype Bell 525 Relentless helicopter and killing the two occupants. The helicopter broke up in flight while traveling about 229 mph (199 kn) at an altitude of about 2,000 feet (610 m); the main rotor contacted and severed the tail boom due to severe vertical oscillations. The crew were performing one engine inoperative (OEI) recovery testing; the test induced a scissors-mode vibration in the main rotor, which resulted in involuntary collective control input. The unintended biomechanical feedback loop exacerbated the vibration, until the rotor contacted the tail-boom.
