ANN News-Spy Was There

Dave Jones of www.auav.net, who makes one to three-meter wingspan autonomous industrial/agricultural aerial vehicles, was watching. He was working on a UAV demonstration in the otherwise-deserted area, and was all camera'd up.

"It was putting out fires," he told us; "I watched it go in. He was about 150 feet up, when I heard the turbine go, 'vvvuup!' and a big ball of flame came out the back of the engine. When it hit, a ball of fire the size of a VW Beetle came out of the pipe."

Dave and his crew wanted to do what they could. "I got my cell phone out, and dialed 911," Jones said. "The pilot had a gash over his right eye. He started to get out, but the main rotor blades were still spinning -- he was dazed, and he could have caught a rotor blade. I yelled at him to stay in the aircraft... He climbed back in, until it stopped turning."

When he got out, he made it a hundred feet or so, and told Dave that he hadn't had the strength to shut everything down. Dave ran over to the splattered helicopter, climbed in, and shut off everything in sight -- master, avionics, and fuel. "Then the ambulance arrived," Dave remembered.

Why not use a UAV?

"The irony of this," Dave said, "was that we were there to test our UAV for this exact purpose -- to get human pilots out of aircraft, under dangerous situations."

"In fact, in Japan, they use a Yamaha helicopter UAV to carry 30 gallons of water," Dave noted, and added, "though something that small wouldn't have worked on the Idaho fire."

Something went terribly wrong.

"The FAA examiner came out the next day," Dave said, "and he reached inside the turbine (it had an Allison), and pulled the chip detector on the right side. It was full of metal. That turbine was locked up tighter than..."

Pilot did a great job.

Dave couldn't have had higher praise for the pilot. "From the time it burped, to the time it hit the ground, was maybe two seconds. The pilot, John Britton, did an outstanding job. If he hadn't been right on top of it, he would have died. As it was, it hit hard. It dumped pieces all over the place."

**   Report created 8/26/2003   Record 3  **
IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 57731        Make/Model: AS50      Description: AS-350/550 ECUREUIL, ASTAR, SU
  Date: 08/13/2003     Time: 2200
  Event Type: Incident   Highest Injury: None     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Unknown
LOCATION
  City: LEWISTON   State: ID   Country: US
DESCRIPTION
  DEPARTMENT OF LANDS, PUBLIC USE AIRCRAFT CRASHED UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES WHILE SPOTTING FIRES FOR THE GROUND CREWS, 15 MILES EAST OF LEWISTION, ID
INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
                 # Crew:  1     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   Y
                 # Pass:   0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   Y
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
WEATHER: METAR LWS 132156Z 29006KT 10SM CLR 31/03 A3001
OTHER DATA
  Activity: Public Use      Phase: Unknown      Operation: General Aviation
  Departed: UNK                         Dep Date:    Dep. Time:
  Destination: UNK                      Flt Plan: NONE         Wx Briefing: N
  Last Radio Cont: UNK
  Last Clearance: UNK
  FAA FSDO: SPOKANE, WA  (NM13)                   Entry date: 08/14/2003

FMI: www.auav.net