On Florida’s east coast
Miami Beach: Helicopter crashes into sea in front of bathers
Seconds before impact: The helicopter approaches the beach on Miami Beach.
© Screenshot Miami Beach Police
For reasons that are still unclear, a helicopter crashed into the floodwaters in Miami Beach just a few meters from the beach. A video released by the police shows the crash.
The incident took place Saturday afternoon local time in Miami Beach. A three-person helicopter dives straight into the Atlantic Ocean, in close proximity to people on the beach and in the water.
The video, uploaded by the Miami Beach Police on Twitter, reads: “Two people were taken to the hospital,” the police wrote. Her condition is “stable”. Because the pilot was well trained, he helped ensure that nothing worse happened, former US Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo told CNN.
Pilot prevents worse
The case would not be imaginable if the helicopter had landed on the beach, which was heavily frequented at the weekend. The pilot was said to have been able to steer the aircraft away from the people on the beach during the crash. The impact occurred approximately between 9th and 11th Streets in Miami Beach.
But the helicopter is probably a Robinson R44 from the US aircraft manufacturer Robinson Helicopter. The helicopter, which weighs just over 400 kilograms and of which more than 5,000 are in use worldwide, is considered to be light and inexpensive.
At the beginning of the 1990s produced helicopters, accidents due to operator errors increased. Therefore, the training guidelines were tightened by the air traffic control authorities.
An R44 is still considered challenging to fly, as the response time is only a few seconds to initiate an autorotation in the event of an engine failure – the flow stalls immediately compared to other helicopter types. The R44 can no longer be controlled and falls to the ground like a stone.
A Robinson helicopter only crashed in Baden-Württemberg in October 2021. All three occupants were killed.
source: www.miamiherald.com
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