Accident to the Bell 47 registered F-GANY on 02/05/2023 at Thouars-sur-Garonne
Fuel supply failure, forced landing
The pilot took off for a first rotation of around 15 min. The task specialist then added 20 l of fuel and whitening product, with the rotor turning, before the pilot took off again for another rotation.
After a flight time of around 20 min, the engine shut down and the pilot carried out a forced landing. The pilot and the task specialist observed that there was no fuel left in the tanks.
During the examination by the BEA after the accident, a large leak was observed on the left-hand bleed valve: impurities were found inside the bleed valve and may have kept the valve partially open. This leak was very probably present before the accident (see paragraph 2.8) and contributed to an excessive fuel consumption which was not detected by the pilot. The engine shutdown may then be explained by fuel exhaustion due to the depletion of the fuel tanks.