Nets hazard in helicopter deer recovery

Press, 9 June 1980, Page 12

Nets hazard in helicopter deer recovery

A hazard of live deer recovery work using nets fired from helicopters has been pointed up by an accident in Southland.

A helicopter was brought down and one ot its two crew injured when a gun-fired nylon mesh net, abut 5.5 m square, tangled in the main rotor, according to a report issued by the Ministry of Transport’s Office of Air Accidents Investigation.

The net had been fired while the helicopter was manoeuvring. The pilot reported that the net-gun may have been fired “slightly uphill,” with the result that one of the net’s weights might have caused the net to be pulled through the main rotor disc.

Immediately after the

net-gun was fired, the helicopter began to shake severely and lose rotor speed, fhe machine Went dotvn and was landed on the side of a gully, facing uphill. It then • began to slide backwards down the hill, but suddenly reared up, spun, and catapuiated backwards down the slope. The net-handler was thrown out. The machine came to rest, again facing uphill ind still essentially intact, prevented by its tailboom ■rom roiling a further 160 m to the bottom of the -.ully.

The pilot found about half the’ net wrapped round the rotor-blade control gear at the top of the rotor mast. The rest of the net was draped over the machine.