What a crazy chain of events with this story! So happy that everyone survived 🤙🤙💙 Most operators’ approved training procedures are private and proprietary. Those of you flying an air ambulance with single or dual FADEC - I am curious what your recurrent training requirements are for FADEC system failure….especially dual FADEC system failure. Comment below if you can! Fly safe! 🤟

That sound on the doorbell cam is from the fenestron tailrotor, overspeeding (and therefor the entire rotor system overspeeding). The fenestron has a VERY distinct "howl" to it. When its overspeeding, its VERY loud, and sounds exactly like it did in this doorbell video.

I work EMS in the coverage area of LifeNet-81. I have to say the crews with this air medical company are simple amazing. This crash shocked and sent a fear of losing friends. I was happy to hear that everyone was alive and going to survive. I really enjoy watching your videos of this incident. Thank you Chris

Being able to accidentally press a single button and cause all that mayhem seems like somewhat of a design flaw

FAA Commercial helicopter pilot here. Yeah, you made the point loud and clear. Thank you!

I’m a simple man. I see a DR M video, I stop what I’m doing and watch it.

I had no idea how brave and dedicated everyone in Air Medical Rescue is until finding this channel. Thank you to everyone in the Medical Profession on Planet Earth ❤

I am very impressed about your ability to explain complicated things in an easy and understandable way. Keep up the good work. Thanks you very much for your Work.

Daniel Moore & his crew saved the day!

I can’t believe they all walked away from that!

It’s crazy I am not a pilot, I am not a dr, nor am I a nurse (went to collage for 1 year had to quit to take care of family) But my father flew as a captain for Eastern Airlines and then capital cargo while I was growing up. My mom was a neonatal nurse back in the day and a foster parent for medically needing babies as I grew up and into my adulthood. My sister is now a physicians assistant. My nephew is starting flight school soon. Anyway again I am not nor ever will be a pilot (vertigo) But I really appreciate your videos. As a madder of fact I have really learned a lot from your videos, and even tho for me it’s more informative information I will never prob use. I want to say Thank You. I really, really love watching, you are getting there story’s out giving them the respect they all deserve for being the hero’s they all are. It breaks my heart in half when anyone is lost and I want to send love and support to all of there family left behind. To all the hero’s that get hurt in these accidents sending love and support especially to the pilot of this flight. Im just saying Thank you for allowing people like me to watch your videos and not feel like I don’t belong because of what I said earlier about myself. 💙

This is an amazing effort by the entire crew and Captain Dan. Even, and I am saying even, if the "save" in this situation would have been to add throttle manually, I don't think one can begin to comprehend the massive task saturation that would have been occurring when the helicopter goes into such an unstable attitude and the pilot has, in a very very short space of time, the need to stabilise the helicopter and find a landing spot that minimises on the ground casualties and also gives his crew a chance of survival. Bravo to all involved. I miss my days of aeromedical retrieval work and stories like this remind me of the risks all crew take in the service of others.

Nice save, someones watching over that baby, God Bless that Baby.

The likelihood of dual FADEC failure simultaneously on two engines is astronomically improbable. The limited data I saw in this video would not point me in this direction at all. My background is in turbine engine FADEC systems including some experience with PWC and the PW206 engines. The more likely scenario is a total loss of load event which would point to the FADEC reversion to manual failure being a symptom not a cause. The data sample which shows a negative fuel flow command, high Nr speed and zero torque implies the rotor system is being driven by an external force and the engine controls are responding correctly. The resulting FADEC fault condition is what drives them into manual mode. The question is what would drive the rotor so such high speed. If it were the engines, then the fuel flow would be high, EGT would be in extreme exceedance and the torque would be high as well. These would be recorded in the FADEC fault recorder but it isn't there. Therefore there is another cause. A failure to min fuel flow manual mode would have the exact opposite affect. The rotor speed would decay and the aircraft would descend just like an engine failure. Lets consider an external condition which would fit the given data. If the helicopter were inverted with full up collective then the falling would cause an influx of air through the rotor which would drive the rotor faster. This would then result in rotor system overspeed and the FADEC commanding minimum fuel. This fits the data. That the speed doesn't follow the FADEC command would be what drives the fault condition and reversion to manual mode. I don't see the fault condition and reversion to manual in the data log. The question then becomes what would cause the helicopter to roll inverted? Well, the pilot could although I seriously doubt this pilot did or even would. So other causes could include turbulence or SAS/AP malfunction. One thing missing in this video is data from the autopilot system which I haven't any knowledge of. However I have been party to SAS system hard over failures. Either a sever yaw or cyclic roll hard over could cause the aircraft to roll inverted. The EC135 probably does not have a full system flight data recorder as it's not required for this type of operations so that data may not be available. Once the aircraft is inverted, the pilot reaction is a complete unknown generally and will result in many counter reactions to what is necessary such as reducing the collective to full down. In reality, to get an influx from above the rotor which would drive the RPM higher does not need to be full inverted but only severe pitch down. My educated opinion is that this is not a FADEC manual reversion failure. There isn't anything that an engine does which will cause a helicopter to roll inverted. This event has more earmarks of a flight control system failure than powerplant. Here's something else to consider which is the power turbine speed. In the video, it was pointed out that the Np was at 127% which would be bad however the torque output is actually negative which means the drive shaft is actually driving the power turbine not the other way around. The overrunning clutch dose have friction which can do this if the rotor is driving fast enough. What I see in that data is that Ng is still fairly high but not so high as to be making much power and is decelerating. This is most likely because the unloading condition isn't rapid or high enough to trigger the loss of load overspeed system which would cut the fuel off completely. Given a few more records what we would see is the power turbine eventually disconnecting and fall below the rotor speed. It's not uncommon to see this in autorotation testing or practice.

This is a VERY well presented study on complex controls and you nailed it , Cheers .

Man, my heart ached reading the title - so happy that everyone made it out of this situation safely. Seriously love how in-depth you get in breaking down the various aspects of the incident. Definitely subscribing!

well done!! Good information and how it was presented. Keep up the good work. I look forward to these!

I always love your breakdowns and the details leading up to the known quantities and unknowns. I especially liked your swiss cheese graphic. Reminds me of a quote I really loved by Greg Whyte in Fatal Traps for Helicopter Pilots. Yours had more layers & labels.

Thanks again for all of the cool videos...much appreciated. Always learn something from these...and how lucky that they were ok...

Great video! Thank you for the breakdown

Very detailed explanation. I really appreciate all of the research it must take to get the details right! Please keep sharing your work to help our industry learn and be safer!

Great job by Dan and crew!

Once again a great video. I've taken a lot of info from these back to my flight program to change some of the culture in the way that we do things. Keep up the good work!

Great to see some new content. I have missed you !!

I tell students that the SAS cutoff is actually called the rodeo button. Cause if you hit it in flight that’s exactly what you’ll get.

Your most polished presentation. Great work, Hold what you got, Stay consistent. Prepare for greatness.🎉

Great explanation of the system and description of the accident

Automotive Technician here, by all love all things engines, and I’ve always had a fascination with aircraft. Very good video!

I remember this incident. Honestly a testament to Eurocopter’s design and CRFTs.

That strange noise sounded like rotor over-speed. If you have ever watched RC helicopters do crazy stunts or "3D" flying you hear this sound often. RC pilots try to madly overspeed the rotors often by flipping them upside down, diving at high speed and putting loads of negative collective pitch, or by flying level at full speed, flipping the helicopter nose up or nose down and at 90 degrees to the flight path and putting in loads of negative pitch.....vvvvvvvvvvvvviiiiiiiiipppppppp! Is what this sounds like. What a nightmare for all involved and lucky nobody died.

Definitely a crazy story. Great video.

Again, as always well presented. Thank you. I can probably answer #3, Dan was extremely busy and from experience, my only concern would be get to the ground in one piece

Love your tats and ear metal 🤘🏼 The content rocks

I learned and enjoyed your video.

Very well made video. I wish there wouldn't be that many final reports that don't answer the question of why. Greetings, Heiko

This is the most excellent video in every respect that I've seen, you put forward a clear, concise and fully researched "lay" understanding of the various FADEC AP systems in the 'copter. The point (as an engineer) I make and keep making where is an overall monitor recorder of all system box inputs and outputs, they are joined by a common bus and is that live data with timecode recorded as in an a/c FDR??? Is the A/P capable of three axis measurements 6DOF (PYR and their translations)? That data would be vital. A company I represented in the UK (imar navigation gmbh) supplied the inertial gyro super high-precision reference tools to Eurocopter to allow for factory alignment of all inertial measurment units on the EC helo platforms, so I guess the EC AP has an advanced IMU in it otherwise such accurate installation in a factory would not be necessary. I sold the same measurement box to Westlands in the Uk for their mil helo program. All that data existing during flight was never referred to in your presentation. IE no "black box" references. Either this is a cover-up (or engineering stupidity/or both) as all the equipment on the platform is very advanced. The memory in your cellphone could record HOURS of the flight data and voice. (ref ARINC-429 bus or similar) This worry keep coming up in such aviation analysis videos such as yours.

wow! how do u know this much abt helicopters without even being a pilot urself? i loved how u broke it all down with so much details that even i almost understood what happened! mad cred & respect to u, great break down, thx we appreciate it a lot!! had to sub and like and leave comment just bcz i was so impressed of ur content!

Thanks for sharing. 😉👌🏻

This makes me so nervous! When I was flying in the Bell 407, we flew our missions at 1000ft. To think that we wouldn't have had time to recover from this is scary. My former agency has now switched to the EC135 (they don't like it either) so my friends are the ones that have to conquer this challenge.

The pilot has been interviewed, and tells exactly what happened and what caused it

That fenestron overrevving is SCARY

Justin, I'm always impressed with the detail of your accident reviews, particularly as a non-pilot. Just excellent. As a current EC145 EMS pilot myself (the EC135 & 145 have almost identical AFCS/Autopilot systems) I wanted to clarify a few points. I am as frustrated as you seem to be by the lack of even a single contributing factor related to this accident. In particular I question why the seeming lack of a Flight Data Monitoring System, as required by FAR 135.607 is not mentioned in the NTSB Report. I have to assume that it was either not installed or not working; unacceptable! That requirement was put in place for obvious reasons and data from that unit would likely have answered all of the questions pertaining to this accident. I can think of at least two other helicopter accidents where the monitoring system was determined to be not serviceable during post accident review. A quick note to your reference that cruise flight utilizes relatively low power. Actually, during cruise flight, power is set to Maximum Continuous Power (MCP) which as its name implies is the maximum power that can be applied to the aircraft without any time limits. This limit is almost always in relation to the torque that can be applied to the main transmission. Relating to the SAS/AP CUT switch on the pilots cyclic control, your dialog is accurate. In fact, when attending annual simulator training at FlightSafety, the instructor refers to this switch as "The Upside Down Button", which in retrospect seems to be unfortunately accurate. As demonstrated by the pilots post accident reenactments in the simulator, even when knowing the SAS/AP CUT button was going to be pressed in cruise flight it was very difficult to control the aircraft. This button is NEVER pressed during normal flight operations and only in response to an autopilot failure of some type. As can be imagined, the faster the airspeed the more difficult it is to fly the aircraft without SAS as the flight loads are much higher. Lastly, even with the Autopilot OFF the SAS is operational providing short term stability. It is the SAS/AP CUT button that completely removes all stability components of the AFCS and allows (forces) the pilot to manually fly a "non-stabilized" aircraft. Kudos again to a great review. Looking forward to the next.

Sounds like that SAS/AP switch needs a simple old common safety cover, that has to be thumbed up before anything can bump it.

Sounds like he was overwhelmed after the initial upset and never got ahead of the curve.

Awesome to see the Metro Aviation simulator at the end there! They do a fantastic job of preparing EC135 and other pilots for their prospective jobs.

another great breakdown video! you genuinely deserve far more recognition for how well edited, explained, interesting & educational your videos & podcast are. i’m not kidding when i say it’s made me want to and now begin to look into the first response field for a career path.

Great job on video

I'm a pilot and a doctor. Kudos to that crew! Not sure I could pull that off

Thank God they were all okay !

The surprise factor is probably what caught this pilot off guard, and made recovery damn near impossible. Near the end of your video you mention additional training. FAA licensure only requires a pilot demonstrate maneuvers and operations proficiency. Scenarios based training is only really the domain of commercial aviation. Perhaps pilots could demand their employers provide some scenarios based training, and least some checklists for before liftoff, to self brief on “what I (as the pilot), will do when…” statements, so the memory items are reviewed before flights. Similar to a GA pilot telling himself “I expect my engine to fall during takeoff, when it does, there it is, push the nose down, and fly the wing to the softest crash possible.”

Excellent video as always. Very different sort of malfunction, and not something you'd expect from such an advanced helicopter. You gotta wonder with the over-automation in these modern Airbus helicopters how many new potential failures and emergency scenarios are introduced. I've a bit of sim experience (H145 and 160) and i feel the AFCS and SAS does alienate you with how you should be flying a helicopter, and a sudden loss of these systems makes a massive difference (in my very limited and questionably realistic experience). To lose them completely unexpectedly and recover, on top of troubleshooting the issue is gonna be a massive undertaking on the pilot.

7:30 😂 SAS Mode!

THANK YOU FOR THIS UPDATE....AMAZING CRASH...GOD BLESSED THEM ALL...THANK YOU LORD.....WHAT A MIRACLE.... I AM A INSTRUMENT PILOT, AND IT AMAZES ME THAT "ANYONE" SURVIVED THIS CRASH....NOT ENOUGH WORDS FOR THIS ONE. THANK YOU

Retreating blade stall ? I know the B0105 was flipped. Upside down like that if you overspeed , I think it's rigid rotor system issue..

Danke!

Sounds like a design flaw to me, likely due to a rare convergence of specific parameters.

I think this situation really reinforces why its important that the crew, patient and all gear always be firmly secured before takeoff. Being "out of belt" should be a rare exception during flight. I was a safety officer at my program and I really hammered these points to my crews.

Thanks!

Im so glad everyone survived. I always have a hard time understanding why a lot of helicopter pilots want to fly just higher than the tree tops. When we can only glide a mile every 1500ft agl.

As a novice pilot years ago I recall the auto throttle randomly turning itself off, scared the be-jezus out of me, almost was a big bill, especially as an MC rider 💀

Could gyroscopic reactions from the engines, or from the main rotor, have resulted in the roll that turned the aircraft ove?

It was an issue with the SAS. Pilot had no control input. Not the first time it has happened either.

I'm glad I never had a sas system in either of the 2 different ships I flew in. 1st was a h/d model slick, and next was an oh-6a loh. The loh didn't even have a hydraulic system. Direct push pull tubes, and bell cranks. No cables either. I did get about 35 minutes front seat in a snake witch did have sas, but the front seat controls were heavy, but positive. Good fun.

Was wondering if you no how the pilot and the crew we're doing and if they were back to flying ?

Question for helo pilots. My last experience with helicopters was in the late 70's on H-53's as maintenance. Ffwd, 2023, I saw a Bell hovering over power lines, probably as security for work that was being done on the ground at the Metclaf station on Highway 101/85 at the southern end of San Jose Calif. The helicopter look as if it was pinned to the sky. There was no bobbing up or down and no yaw motion. Assuming equipment installed, are the helo autopilots that good?

This was an exceptional break down. As prior USCG Helo pilot & paramedic, and currently working as an APRN (I also did marine casualty investigations). It is not common for the NTSB to not have a clearly defined root cause. The event sequence I think is critical point, in particular when the loud bang was heard. It seems the event sequence began with the attitude upset with the SAS & AFCS disengagement. I need to go read the report, but I would want to know if there was a malfunction in the free-wheeling unit in the main gear box. This may explain the engine power setting & rotor RPM. The dynamic forces also could cause the over speed of the main rotor. For example, turning & the flair increase Rotor RPM. THe loss of situational awareness I think is the big take away, but have to hand it to the pilot in that the rapid upset of the aircarft required him to rebuild his paradigm (mental model) and it seems he just did not have a lot of time from the onset to the event termination to rebuild that. As odd as this may sound, this was some damn good airmanship on the pilot and great CRM by the crew. Baravo Zulu to this flight crew. Great, well thought out analysis. John B Hall H65 pilot, APRN

do you fly hypre performance 145

Reminds me of the rudder hardcover incidents in the 90s

If smthg broke off and flew into the engine? Or cut lines?

I’d take some of that noise on the Ring doorbell with a grain of salt. I have one and some of that noise early in the video before you actually see the aircraft I’ve heard on our doorbell.

Being in electronics, I would suspect a computer bug or associated electronics control. It is very difficult to find. I was involved in fault finding of very complex military, aircraft and other complex control systems. I and a colleague were involved in no fault found equipment. The cause was in nearly all cases found, being a bug, literally, using very complex equipment. I presume the black box was recovered, and this should point to the possable cause. Thank God this outcome was survived, thanks to the pilot's control.

Much different than most plane crashes, helicopters give you little to no time to decide.

0:27 burning question might not be the right words for an accident like this.😮

Doctor Medic I love your arm sleeve tattoo . Are you going to get your other arm tattooed as well ?

Reminds me of the 737 rudder mystery from years ago.

Naaa, not confusing at all, I'm flying my RC Heli as you speak and tried the maneuver...I crashed. Just happy to know they made it.

What would be the effect of a bird strike on the fenestron ?

What did the investigative board NTSB conclude?

Rotor vortex state with associated mast bump?

I would suspect they had the misfortune of flying through a mini whirlwind much like an invisible clear sky upper altitude dust devil. The tip speed of the leading rotor can for an instant exceed the speed of sound, makes a sharp bang, and results in momentary instability. Of course you'll find no physical damage. Perhaps the auto controllers need more advanced and better sensors and the pilots more and better training. Thinking that's a major glitch in development.

I was an instructor and check airman in these and almost without exception every pilot that had any rotor related problem would lower the collective, not always the right answer.

Pilot was likely dealing with being startled by the upset and busy trying to get control. Probably didn't know at the time the fadec kicked out.

I saw the eclipse in West Plains…at the airport…home of Air Evac…I was chatting with a maintenance base A&P base guy. Mentioned my bro was a former flight nurse and how I watched your channel. He knew about it. And couldn’t change the subject quick enough. I’m a smart man, interested in av for over 3 decades and know the “good ole boys”. You prob knew them in OK. I grew up in the change of analog to digital tv. Same biz but totally diff set of engineering. Some folks will transition, older prob won’t, new folks will randomly be a thing. Mechanics are totally capable of engaging the whatif electronics rule set as if a mechanical situation…but they have to be taught the system. You are onto something brother.

Sounds very much like he encountered wake turbulence from a large aircraft that was crossing or had crossed above his flightpath. Certainly wake turbulence can flip an aircraft over and it has caused a helicopter crash in the past. Very difficult to find as the cause is flying away at a different altitude and direction.

I think we need to figure out what the loud bang heard from the rear of the helicopter was.

I have student in UK Navy. He said the 135 he rides in they had one with blade missing in tail rotor and it's still flyable?

Two Boeing 737s suffered from an abrupt uncommanded rudder deflection that ultimately was traced to defective function of a hydraulic control valve. For a very long time the cause was not known and pilot error was speculated. Maybe something similar happened with these two helicopters.

Helicopters terrify me ! Why are they always crashing ???

Software bug??

Kind of like a Boeing 737Max. Even if the Lifemed crew were extremely impressive professionals, an aircraft that can mysteriously flip upside down and crash just doesn't attract my confidence.

That sounded like on of our gas turbine engines over speeding right before it comes apart. I'm talking about those used back in the 70's and 80's. Got out in 85 so don't know what came later. We were using some equipment from the 60's...... So , yeah

This whole talk about the autopilot with autopilot incidents in mind made me nervous and think an easily reachable button would be a good idea. At 12:54 you show just that! Edit: And that just might have been it! Good I didn't design this. 👀

FYI. Same as in a fixed wing, if Pilot pulls /pushes hard enough on either cyclic or collective, autopilot will disengage. Each autopilot system, dependent on manufacturer, will have a set pounds of push/pull for disengagement.

Another possibility could be the rotor brake temporarily failed.

The difference between a failure and an airplane and a helicopter. All comes down to time. An airplane, a helicopter can auto rotate. But man, oh man Time is against you and a helicopter for you to try to go through some sort of checklist even if that's a mental one.

407's have a auto man sugar cube switch for going back into auto. Default is auto mode. Not sure if 135's have that. It's been a long minute since I had to sit in a 135 for anything.

Those modes also will cause a crash if they fail to operate as designed. The more systems a helo has the higher the chances for a serious crash.

Interesting I noticed that the maker of the SAS is also the maker of nightowl heads up system that is all edged to have caused Australian military helicopter crash….. needs further investigation I think

Could the helicopter flown through some wake upsetting it's stability.?

Maybe someone hit the helicopter with some directed energy device that caused the autopilot to disengage and it also caused a "pop" in the pilots head set that sounded like a loud bang...?