Serious Incident to the Aerospatiale AS350 registered PR-HCT on 03/18/16 at Caracarai [Investigation led by CENIPA / Brazil]

Preliminary data based on notification from Brazilian authorities:

During the final approach to a confined area, there was an inadvertent "sinking" of the aircraft and its main rotor assembly collided with the existing vegetation along approach axis. The aircraft made a yawed slightly to the left and sustained a further "sinking" but these events were corrected by the aircraft captain. After the recover, the pilot managed to land successfully in an area without trees 15 meters ahead. Everyone on board disembarked after the landing. The aircraft was lightly damaged.

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General information
Local date	18/03/2016
Responsible entity	Brazil - CENIPA
State or area of occurrence	Brazil
Location	Caracarai
Human consequences	None
Aircraft consequences	Minor
Occurrence class	Serious incident
File number	BEA2016-0194

Flight Information
Aircraft category	Helicopter
Operator	Brazil (IBAMA)
Manufacturer / Model	AEROSPATIALE - AS350
Aircraft Registration	PR-HCT
State of registry	Brazil
Last departure point	Brazil - SWQI : Caracarai
Planned destination	Brazil - SWQI : Caracarai
Flight phase	Approach
Serial number	7432
Operator Type AG	Corporate/executive
Operation Type	Nationally Regulated Operations - Firefighting

BEA is the French air safety investigation authority for civil aviation. The sole objective of the investigation is to improve air safety. It is intended neither to apportion blame nor to assess responsiblity.