Low Rotor RPM Suspected In Crash

Two men died Saturday in the crash of their Robinson R-22 (file photos below)-- after witnesses said the helicopter 'exploded' in mid-air.

"There was a huge explosion in the air," said Loren Kraetz, who lives near Arlington Municipal Airport, WA. He was quoted by the Seattle Times as saying the aircraft engine revved loudly just before the explosion. "It sounded like a large diesel truck with its engine wide open.... Then it just exploded," said Kraetz.

If the Seattle Times had done their homework (or understood helicopter aerodynamics and engineering), they would have added that such eyewitness descriptions often follow incidents in which helicopters with this rotor configuration experienced excessive deterioration in their rotor RPM, leading to mast bumping, structural failure, and other ills. The results are usually catastrophic... and almost always avoidable (hence the reason that Robinson Heli has emphasized training for these scenarios for several decades and is even more insistent on such training with their CFIs).

The FAA and NTSB are investigating the accident. The two-place helicopter was built in 1990 and registered to a company in Montana, according to FAA records.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov