Copterline Flight 103

Copterline Flight 103

OH-HCI, the helicopter that crashed, photographed in 2002.
Accident summary
Date	10 August 2005
Summary	Servo failure
Site	Tallinn Bay, Estonia 59°32.546′N 024°43.852′E / 59.542433°N 24.730867°E / 59.542433; 24.730867
Passengers	12
Crew	2
Fatalities	14 (all)
Aircraft type	Sikorsky S-76C+
Operator	Copterline
Registration	OH–HCI

Copterline Flight 103 (AAQ103) was a Copterline helicopter flight en route to Helsinki, Finland from Tallinn, Estonia that crashed into the Tallinn Bay on 10 August 2005, at 12:45 local time.

The Sikorsky S-76C+ crash occurred three to four minutes after taking off. On board were two Finnish crew members and twelve passengers: six Finns, four Estonians and two Americans. There were no survivors.

The helicopter was flying at an altitude of about 500 metres (1,600 ft) when it suddenly lost its steerability and plunged into the sea. The emergency floats failed to operate, and the wreck sank quickly. All those on board perished by drowning.

The Sikorsky S-76C+ has emergency pontoons for water landings but they were not deployed, and no distress signals were heard before the crash, although it later emerged that the pilots had tried to send an emergency message shortly before the crash.

Rescuers reached the site in less than 10 minutes to find just one main rotor blade and an oil slick on the water. The wreckage of the helicopter itself was located by sonar operators on the Estonian Maritime Administration vessel EVA-320, who indicated that the aircraft was intact at a depth of roughly 43 metres (141 ft). Two Estonian deep-sea divers following an earlier unmanned robotic vehicle reported that the bodies of the passengers were inside the craft. Thirteen bodies were retrieved, with one pilot missing. The recovery mission was hindered by rough weather conditions. The wreckage of the aircraft was lifted on 13 August 2005 and transported to Tallinn for investigation. The missing pilot was not found in the initial searches performed by the Estonian and Finnish authorities, but the body was finally located on 25 August and retrieved by volunteer divers some distance away from the accident site. The post mortem indicated that the victims died from drowning.

The Estonian authorities refused to send the flight data recorder of the helicopter to the United States because the aircraft was manufactured there, thus possibly creating a conflict of interest. The technical investigation was in fact performed in the United Kingdom. The voice recording indicated that the pilots realized that something was wrong only 35 seconds before the helicopter hit the sea, and that they did attempt to send a Mayday message.