Robinson R44 crash near 36nm NW of Smith Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica

The two pilots were crossing the Drake Passage from Cabo de Hornos in southern Chile to Teniente Marsh airbase on King George Island, a 440-mile flight, having waited several days for a favourable tailwind. Four hours in and approaching King George Island, they saw sea fog ahead and turned southwest to make landfall. A vibration then developed from the engine with a loss of power; lowering the collective to maintain rotor RPM produced a slow descent. After about thirty seconds and at 500 feet the oil pressure fell to zero, the warning light illuminated and the engine stopped. One pilot autorotated while the other climbed onto the skid with the life raft and emergency kit, jumping at twenty feet. The helicopter was turned into wind and settled onto the sea with zero groundspeed; the second pilot jumped clear and it sank within seconds. Both boarded the life raft, activated their beacon and called for help by satellite phone. A Chilean Air Force Twin Otter spotted them six hours later and directed a Chilean Navy vessel to the scene, ten hours after the ditching. The same helicopter had been the first piston-engined helicopter to land at the Geographic North Pole, in June 2002.