The Virginia State Police Bell 407 was conducting an observation flight near a demonstration in the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S., and was being repositioned to watch over a motorcade when it crashed to the ground, killing both the pilot and his passenger. The helicopter was destroyed.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in its final report on the Aug. 12, 2017, accident that the probable cause was the pilot’s loss of control after the helicopter entered vortex ring state ─ a condition also known as “settling with power” and characterized by a loss of main rotor lift ─ which led to “a high rate of descent to the ground with a right spin.” A contributing factor was the pilot’s “lack of recent and recurrent training in vortex ring state recognition and recovery,” the report said.
The helicopter took off from Charlottesville Albemarle Airport around 1600 local time and arrived at an area above the demonstrations at 1604, the acc…
