Accident to the helicopter Airbus AS350 registered C-FXEJ operated by Aberdeen Helicopters Limited on 01/05/2024 at Vernon (CANADA)
Loss of pitch control during an exercise, during instruction
Responsible entity
Preliminary data based on the notification from the local authorities:
An Aerospatiale AS 350 BA helicopter (registration C-FXEJ) operated by Aberdeen Helicopters Limited took off from Vernon Airport (CYVK), British Columbia, Canada, on a local training flight under visual flight rules with 2 crew members and 1 passenger on board. After a short time in flight, the hydraulics were shut off to accommodate the training exercise. A few minutes later, the helicopter began to pitch nose down and the pilots were able to mitigate, but not stop, the nose-down attitude. The helicopter hit the ground nose-down but remained upright.