Serious incident to the Airbus EC130 registered VT-VGO on 21/03/2019 en route [Investigation led by AAIB / India]

Preliminary data based on the notification from the Indian authorities:

The helicopter while abeam Knoll (Reporting point) at 5500 feet, and descending with ROD 1500'/min, the pilot observed excessive wind in the cockpit. The pilot observed that, the sunroof

Perspex over him was missing. The pilot immediately reduced the speed and made short approach to Katra and landed.

There was damage observed on main rotor blade.

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General information
Local date	21/03/2019
Responsible entity	India - AIB
State or area of occurrence	India
Location	En croisière
Human consequences	None
Aircraft consequences	Minor
Occurrence class	Serious incident
File number	BEA2019-0137

Flight Information
Aircraft category	Helicopter - Small helicopter
Operator	British Indian Ocean Territory (M/s Global Vectra Helicorp Ltd)
Manufacturer / Model	EUROCOPTER - EC130
Aircraft Registration	VT-GVO
State of registry	India
Last departure point	India (Sanji Chat)
Planned destination	India (Katra)
Flight phase	En route
Serial number	8066
Operator Type AG	Corporate/executive
Operation Type	Non-Commercial Operations

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.