Bill Graham helicopter crash

Bill Graham helicopter crash

Bell 206B Jetranger similar to accident aircraft
Accident summary
Date 25 October 1991
Summary Continued flight into known adverse weather
Site Approximately six miles west of Vallejo, California, United States
38°09′11″N 122°24′45″W / 38.15306°N 122.41250°W / 38.15306; -122.41250Coordinates: 38°09′11″N 122°24′45″W / 38.15306°N 122.41250°W / 38.15306; -122.41250
Passengers 2
Crew 1
Injuries (non-fatal) 0
Fatalities 3
Survivors 0
Aircraft type Bell 206B
Operator Corporate Mobility Inc.[1]
Registration N3456M[2]

On 25 October 1991, a Bell 206 carrying rock concert promoter Bill Graham and two other people, crashed into a transmission tower west of Vallejo, California, killing everybody on board.[3][4] The cause of the accident was determined to be the pilot's intentional flight into known adverse weather conditions.[3]

Accident

The Bell 206B JetRanger was operating under Federal Aviation Regulation Part 91,[3] and departed from parking lot "F"[5] of the Concord Pavilion around 9:45 pm, bound for the Commodore Center Heliport (KJMC) in Sausalito, California approximately 27 miles to the southwest. The pilot had received a weather briefing in which Visual flight rules (VFR) flight was not recommended due to inclement weather. Before take-off the pilot requested and received a special VFR clearance to pass though the airspace of Buchanan Field Airport on a northwest heading.[3] When the helicopter lifted off the weather was one half mile visibility, gusty winds, heavy rain and overcast with a two hundred foot ceiling.[6] Using Pilotage to navigate from one landmark to another at an altitude just below the cloud base, the helicopter pilot proceeded through the city of Vallejo and began following California State Route 37. At 9:56 pm near the northernmost point of San Pablo Bay, the Bell 206B struck the top of a 223 foot high-voltage transmission tower, located approximately 150 feet south of Rt. 37 and became impaled on it.[5] The aircraft exploded on impact and all three occupants suffered fatal injuries.

Aircraft and crew

The Bell 206B JetRanger registration number N3456M and serial number 1391, had an airframe total time of 6279 hours and its last inspection was on 9 September 1991, 7 logged hours before the accident.[1]

The pilot was 42-year-old Steve Kahn who held valid Airline Transport, Flight Instructor and Commercial certificates, with 4541 total flight hours logged.[1]

Passengers

The passengers were the rock concert promoter Bill Graham and his girlfriend, Melissa Gold.[7]

Aftermath

The helicopter became welded to the 115,000 volt tower and a large crane was required to remove and lower it to the ground. The JetRanger was written off as damaged beyond repair. A music concert at the Concord Pavilion was interrupted for a time due to a power surge and 23,000 homes were left without power until morning. A section of Rt. 37 was closed for days afterward and the tower was later repaired.[5]

Investigation

The aircraft had to be left hanging from the tower until investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board could examine it.[5] The inquiry found the pilot had considerable geographic knowledge of the area and decided to fly VFR when conditions would indicate use of Instrument flight rules. Witnesses saw the helicopter flying parallel to Rt. 37 at about 200 feet Altitude above ground level and then explode as it collided with the tower. The area sectional chart clearly showed the location and height of the high voltage tower.

The NTSB's final conclusion was "The pilot's intentional flight into known adverse weather, continued flight into instrument meteorological conditions, and improper altitude. Contributing to the accident was low ceilings, poor visibility, and restricted visual lookout."[3]

The rebuilt high tension tower as it appeared in May 2015.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 NTSB (27 April 1993). "NTSB Database "Factual"". ntsb.gov. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
  2. "FAA Registry". Federal Aviation Administration.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 NTSB (27 April 1993). "NTSB Identification: LAX92LA029". ntsb.gov. NTSB. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
  4. Bruce Lambert (27 November 1991). "Bill Graham, Rock Impresario, Dies at 60 in Crash". nytimes.com. The New York Times. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Check Six (22 November 2014). "Bill Graham's Stairway to Heaven". check-six.com. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
  6. ASN archive (24 October 2008). "ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 35961". aviation-safety.net. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
  7. Jason Ankeny (24 October 2008). "Bill Graham". allmusic.com. Retrieved 16 June 2015.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, February 03, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.