The pilot of the Kaman K-1200 helicopter was conducting fire-suppression flights for the U.S. Forest Service, flying to a dip site to fill a water bucket attached to a 140-ft (43-m) longline. After he failed to return to either the fire or the heliport where he planned to refuel, searchers found the helicopter in the river at the dip site, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said.
The pilot was killed in the Aug. 24, 2020, accident near Pine Grove, Oregon, U.S., and the helicopter was substantially damaged.
In its final report, the NTSB said the probable cause was “an in-flight breakup resulting from contact of the left rotor system with the right rotor system after an in-flight failure of a servo flap from a left rotor blade.”
(The report described the K-1200 as having “two counterrotating, side-by-side intermeshing rotors with two blades per rotor (for a total of four blades). The rotors were out of phase by 90 degrees and were tilted ou…
