Villa Castelli helicopter collision
Both helicopters were Eurocopter AS350B3 Écureuils, similar to this one.
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| Mid-air collision summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | 9 March 2015 |
| Site |
Villa Castelli, La Rioja Province, Argentina 29°01′05″S 68°13′37″W / 29.01806°S 68.22694°WCoordinates: 29°01′05″S 68°13′37″W / 29.01806°S 68.22694°W |
| Total fatalities | 10 (all) |
| Total survivors | 0 |
| First aircraft | |
| Type | Eurocopter AS350B3 Écureuil |
| Registration | LQ-CGK |
| Passengers | 4 |
| Crew | 1 |
| Fatalities | 5 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Second aircraft | |
| Type | Eurocopter AS350B3 Écureuil |
| Registration | LQ-FJQ |
| Passengers | 4 |
| Crew | 1 |
| Fatalities | 5 |
| Survivors | 0 |
On 9 March 2015, two helicopters collided near Villa Castelli in Northwest Argentina. All ten people on board the two aircraft were killed.
The aircraft involved were both Eurocopter AS350B3 Écureuils, one was registered LQ-CGK, the other LQ-FJQ.LQ-CGK was manufactured in 2010 and was owned by the provincial government of La Rioja.LQ-FJQ was manufactured in 2012 and was owned by the provincial government of Santiago del Estero.
An episode of the television programme Dropped was being filmed for the French channel TF1. The show takes celebrities to a hostile environment by helicopter and films their efforts to survive. The cast included Olympic-medal winning or internationally competitive athletes, including French athletes Florence Arthaud, Alain Bernard, Philippe Candeloro, Jeannie Longo, Camille Muffat, Alexis Vastine, Sylvain Wiltord and Swiss athlete Anne-Flore Marxer. Filming began in late February 2015 in Ushuaia, in the far south of Argentina, before moving to the province of La Rioja, about 1,170 kilometres (730 mi) from the capital, Buenos Aires. At the time of the accident, Wiltord had already been eliminated from the competition and was back in Paris.
Each helicopter was carrying four passengers in addition to the pilot. Seconds after take-off, the two helicopters were involved in a mid-air collision at a height of about 100 metres (330 ft) above the ground. The accident occurred at about 17:15 local time (20:15 UTC). A video of the accident appears to show that the lower of the two helicopters was climbing at a rate faster than the other one, colliding with it from below.
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Wikipedia