Airbus Helicopters EC130 B4 crash near St Louis, MO, United States

HISTORY OF FLIGHTOn March 6, 2015, at 2310 central standard time, an Airbus Helicopters (Eurocopter) EC-130-B4, N356AM, operated by Air Methods (doing business as ARCH), struck the edge of a hospital building and impacted its parking lot during a visual approach to the St Louis University Hospital elevated rooftop helipad (MO55), St Louis, Missouri. During the approach, the helicopter experienced a loss of directional control and entered an uncontrolled descent. The helicopter was destroyed by impact forces and a post-crash fire. The commercial pilot, who was the sole occupant, sustained fatal injuries. The helicopter was operated under Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as an air medical positioning flight that was operating on a company flight plan. Night visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The flight was returning to MO55 after it had been refueled at the operator's base located at Arch Heliport (MU05), St. Louis, Missouri. The flight's first approach and landing at MO55 was to drop off a medic, nurse, and a patient, who was not in critical condition. The flight release for the flight and the accident flight had a green weather status, whose criteria is solely based upon ceilings and visibility. The risk assessment, which was completed for the flight and not for the accident flight, was assessed as low. The medic said that he had been employed as a medic for about a year and flew on previous flights that landed at MO55 "couple of times" and had flown with other Air Methods pilots. The nurse stated that she began employment at Air Methods in January 2015 and she had two years of experience with another aviation company. The medic stated that during the first approach for landing to MO55 with the pilot, the pilot said that there was a 25 knot wind, but the medic did not know the source of the pilot's wind information. The medic said that the wind sock on the helipad was illuminated and pointing "straight out" towards the elevator shaft (the elevator shaft was located toward the northeast) next to the helipad. During the approach, the helicopter tail was "sideways a little bit." The pilot said it was going to be "a little rough" and that "it was a little windy." The medic said that the approach was "straight-in," and he felt a "little drop" when they came in. The helicopter did not slow down during the approach. The approach felt lower than usual and about 10-20 feet lower than that used by other pilots he had flown with and seemed closer to the elevator than the middle of the helipad while the helicopter was about a "football field" or "half of a football field" away from the helipad. The nose of the helicopter was directed away from elevator and the pilot would "straighten out" the helicopter when it was closer in. The nurse said that there was "a lot of rolling" and "a lot of yawing" during the approach to MO55. Over the helipad, the pilot was having a "hard time" and "a couple of more seconds" she would had told him to abort the landing and to do another "recon." The medic said that after landing, the pilot needed to shut down the helicopter at MO55 to remove a helicopter seat. After the helicopter shutdown, the pilot said that he wanted to stay on the helipad, but the medic told the pilot that the helicopter could not remain on the helipad because there were other helicopters coming in. The nurse stated that it was not a "typical thing to do" to have the helicopter remain on the helipad because other helicopter arrivals. The nurse stated that the pilot did not tell her why he wanted to remain on the helipad, but her "gut reaction was that it was a hard landing and he did not want to do that again." She said it was "difficult" to get the helicopter skids onto the helipad. The flight then departed to obtain fuel at MU05 (located about 1.3 nautical miles from MO55). Upon refueling, the flight returned to MO55, to pick up the medic and nurse. Neither the medic nor the nurse saw the helicopter takeoff from MO55 for the flight to refuel at MU05. The nurse stated that at 2258 she sent a text message to the pilot stating that they were ready to be picked up from MO55, and he responded in text that he was on his way. She said that at 2309, she looked at the time and thought it was "taking a while for his return." The accident occurred during the flight's return, during approach for landing, at MO55. A witness stated that he was sitting in his truck parked across from the St Louis University Hospital emergency room when he saw a light shine on his truck, "the light was coming closer and closer." After a while the light turned around and disappeared "quick." The light shined for about two minutes. His truck was facing west because it was parked on Vista, which is a one way street. The light shined on the truck for about two minutes. The light turned sideways, and it was a clear white light. The other lights he saw on the back of the helicopter "looked like red and green" from the tail. He said he could not hear the helicopter. The helicopter was "coming forward" and it took a "little tail spin" before it went out of sight. The helicopter went north and "went down." He saw the helicopter "side" and "back" and then it went down. He did not see any fire from the helicopter before the accident. He did not hear any noise after it went out of sight. He said that his truck was parked across from the hospital ambulance entrance. He said the helicopter made a "regular turn" and he could see its side, which was to his left before it went down. He saw it "spin only once and not more." He said the helicopter was pointing "straight down as it turned left." He said it was not "quite straight down" and the light was shining on the ground as it was going down on an angle. He said that he did not see the helicopter "wobble." He said a security guard came out and walked down Thistle. The witness said he got out of his truck, and the wind was "going pretty hard" going north. He said that helicopter was about 15 feet above the overhead tunnel between the hospital and hospital garage. He did not see the bottom of the helicopter because of the light. He said the wind was not shaking his truck when he was sitting inside of it. PERSONNEL INFORMATIONThe pilot held a commercial pilot certificate with rotorcraft-helicopter and instrument-helicopter ratings issued on June 24, 1992. Air Methods reported on National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Accident Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident/Incident (Form 6120) that the pilot accumulated a total time of 2,614 hours, all of which was in rotorcraft. According to the FAA blue ribbon airman certification file for the pilot, he was issued a commercial pilot certificate based upon military competence obtained in the US Army and had flown at least 10 hours as pilot-in-command during the last 12 months in the following military aircraft: UH-1. Section III, Record of Flight Time was not completed upon the application for his commercial pilot certificate with rotorcraft-helicopter and instrument-helicopter ratings. A record of his military competence, Army DA Form 759, Individual Flight Record and Flight Certificate, was not in the airman certification file nor was it required to be submitted by the examiner that issued the pilot's commercial pilot certificate. The pilot had applied for employment as a pilot at another EMS operator in the summer of 2013. According to the operator's regional director of flight operations during that time, he interviewed the pilot and went through the pilot's qualifications using the pilot's resume. The director of flight operations stated that he did not feel confident in the pilot's flight times. Another regional director for the EMS operator called someone at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky to verify if the pilot's PIC flight time in AH-64 helicopters and found out that the pilot had "very limited PIC time in the AH-64." The director of operation that had int