Witnesses saw helicopter ‘descend steeply nose-first’ before fatal Kildare crash

Witnesses who saw the final moments of a fatal helicopter flight in Co Kildare have told investigators the aircraft was flying backwards and forwards before assuming a “steep nose-down” bearing and crashing into a field. One said they thought the aircraft was “going to land” before it climbed “nose straight up and into cloud”. Others later saw it “descend steeply nose-first” before impact.

While the helicopter, with only the pilot on board, burst into flames, it had been retrofitted with special “bladder-lined” fuel tanks aimed at negating fire in the event of a crash. The helicopter had also undergone safety checks last year, according to the initial findings of the Air Accident Investigation Unit Ireland (AAIU).

The Robinson 44 helicopter, which was registered in the US, crashed into a field on farmland in Kennycourt, about 6km southeast of Kilcullen, just before 3pm on Sunday, December 11th. The pilot, a man from Dublin, was killed instantly. There were no other occupants.

The wreckage of the aircraft was taken away for examination by the AAIU. Its report, issued on Tuesday, is preliminary. As such, it reaches no conclusions about why or how the crash occurred. However, it contains witness accounts and will be followed by a final report.

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Some of the witnesses told investigators they could only hear the helicopter above them – in mist, fog and generally freezing conditions – while others said they saw the aircraft’s lights in the sky and then the crash. The helicopter was heard to be “coming and going”, “circling” and “moving around”, according to a preliminary report. It noted Met Éireann’s observation that “the probability of freezing fog on the day was high”.

The pilot contacted Shannon air traffic control at 2.32pm on the day to report he was departing Ballygarret, Co Wexford, “en route to Rosslare and then over to Kilrush Airfield”. Some 25 minutes later he reported again to Shannon, saying he was “lifting out of Rosslare for Kilrush Airfield”, where he intended to land. At 3:26pm he reported he was “switching now to Kilrush frequency” and radar data indicated the helicopter then approached Kilrush from the southeast.

However, when it was 0.7 nautical miles away from the airfield, and at an altitude of 1,900ft, it tuned right, or northeast. The report says the aircraft continued to fly north eastward towards the Kennycourt area some 6.7 nautical miles from Kilrush Airfield. It flew over Kennycourt and when it was about 1.5 nautical miles away from that area it was flown back. “The (radar) data indicates that the helicopter flew back and forth over the Kennycourt area for several minutes before radar coverage was lost,” the preliminary report states.

Its final location registered on radar was 0.3 nautical miles southeast of the crash site at 3.45pm, at which point it was flying at 1,600ft.

“Video footage obtained by (investigators) briefly showed the helicopter descending in a steep nose-down attitude in the final moments of the flight,” the report states. “A post-crash fire occurred that was subsequently extinguished by local fire services.”

The helicopter was “destroyed due to the impact and a post-crash fire” and the wreckage was found in a “compact” area except for the main rotor blade, which was about 60 metres away.