CH147306 Chinook - Epilogue

From: Royal Canadian Air Force

A CH147F Chinook helicopter was conducting a series of familiarization flights with military personnel onboard following the completion of Exercise Maple Resolve. The Chinook was flying with support from two CH146 Griffons in Visual Meteorological Conditions.

Each sortie involved landing sequences to unprepared surfaces in the assigned training area. On the fourth sortie of the mission, with twelve passengers and five crew onboard, the Chinook attempted a landing to a selected area in a grassy field. Very shortly after touch down, due to concerning perceptions of rearward drift, the Flight Engineer called for the pilot to abort the landing. The Pilot Flying whom had also perceived motion, initiated the abort and attempted to establish the aircraft in a normal hover. The aircraft entered into an unstable flight regime shortly thereafter with strong lateral oscillations causing the Pilot Flying to initiate an expeditious landing. Upon touch down the rear landing gear collapsed. The Pilot Flying called for an emergency egress while they initiated an emergency shutdown of the aircraft with the help of the Pilot Monitoring. As the rotors were winding down two of the front rotor blades made contact with the fuselage.

The aircraft sustained very serious damage and three occupants received minor injuries.

The investigation concluded that Human Factors contributed to the accident due to improper procedures.

The investigation recommends a publication amendment to define the term “unprepared surface” and a review of the training syllabus for landing abort procedures.

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