Accidents
Business Aircraft Accident Reports: March 2025
Preliminary and final accident reports, March 2025
rural runway

Preliminary Reports

Super Puma Investigation Focuses on Tail Rotor Drive Assembly

Aerospatiale (Airbus Helicopters) AS332L1 Super Puma, Nov, 22, 2024, 41 km north-northwest of Hay Aerodrome, New South Wales, Australia

Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigators probing the emergency forced landing of the twin-engine helicopter found that “the splined sleeve supporting the pitch change control plate had fractured at the mounting flange.” The detachment of the control plate appeared to be “the likely reason for the uncommanded yaw” that precipitated the accident sequence.

The helicopter departed from Broken Hill Airport in New South Wales (YBHI) on the last leg of a ferry flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Albury, N.S.W. where it was to be used in firefighting over the summer season. While in cruise at 3,500 feet, about an hour and a half after takeoff, the pilot and passenger noticed a high-frequency vibration “throughout the airframe.”