Robinson R22 similar to the crashed helicopter
Local and federal authorities are investigating a helicopter crash on Daniel Island, Charleston, South Carolina that reportedly was caused by a drone last Wednesday afternoon.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed Thursday that a Robinson R22 helicopter struck a tree and crash landed near the southern tip of the island around 2 p.m.
Kathleen Bergen, an agency spokeswoman, said the investigation is ongoing and that no further information would be available on Thursday.
A Charleston police incident report offers further details about the crash and the events that reportedly caused it.
Officers were called at 4:30 p.m. to speak with a private helicopter instructor in North Charleston who reported being involved in “a single aircraft mishap,” near Daniel Island Drive and Village Crossing Drive earlier that afternoon, the report said.
The instructor told officers he worked for Holy City Helicopters and was giving a lesson to a client, the report said. The two were flying over undeveloped land on Daniel Island and the student was practicing a manoeuvre when, “a white ‘DJI Phantom quad-copter drone’ was headed into their air space.”
The instructor took over control of the helicopter and attempted evasive maneuvers but the tail rudder hit brush or a small tree, causing him to lose control, the report said.
The helicopter landed on the rear of its landing skids before turning onto its side, the report said.
“The helicopter landed in undeveloped land and could not be seen by the general public,” the report said.
After the crash, the instructor contacted the FAA, Charleston International Airport and the helicopter’s owner, the report said. The owner later determined that the aircraft was totalled following the crash.
No injuries were reported in the crash, the report said.
Further information about the drone or who may have been flying it was not available.
Source: The Post and Courier
It would be useful if you kept the headlines truthful as opposed to clickbaiting. “Alleged” or “assumed” would help as there is no evidence it was a drone and also not questions on why he was so low that he hit a “small tree”.
Well, according to the article:
The instructor told officers…“a white ‘DJI Phantom quad-copter drone’ was headed into their air space.”
Well …if the pilot said a russian missile flew by the helicopter would you title the article «Russian missile down American helicopter»????
If you cannot confirm something you cannot put it in a headline.
What kind of practice were they carrying out that an evasive manuver ends hitting a tree?
OK Rod, good point…
Rod,
We’ve changed the headline to read ‘blamed’ which is hopefully more accurate…and Interestingly the R22 doesn’t have a good crash record, so it will be interesting to see what the FAA report says…
Correct but no one saw that perspective.
This is a rediculous claim by the pilot, I’ve flown helicopters for thirty years and no experienced pilot would take this type of action. No drone, pilot error caused the crash, fabricated the drone to cover the pilots mistake.
just because you couldn’t control the copter, don’t try to blame it on as drone. Bad instructor or student having problem flying , nice try ?????
All that info and he couldnt tell if it was s ” pro,standard,or get serial #?” Similar to losing control of your car showing off or speeding and crashing. Just tell Ins.Co.” Damn deer ran right in the road,!
Exactly this. DJI has flight telemetry data. Cross reference time and location annnd voila a registered owner will appear. No data=No drone.
DJI does have data but according to them, it’s. It saved. It’s only saved on the device that was used to flight the drone. The reason I know this is because my drone was stole and the police were called. I asked dji for assistance and they told me quote. “We don’t have data to help in the investigation as to where or who has the drone. But if they activate the drone with their email, we will know. I asked them do you need my serial number to see if they activate It? They said the app doesn’t use serial numbers to activate drone. So which tells me if a incident does happen, they wouldn’t know how did what unless that drone was captured. Honestly, DJI should be banned in the USA due to its lack of security.
Edit: It’s not saved at dji. Only on device that was used for flying.
I agree 101 % RL! Fact there.
This falls in the category of a teenager who totals a car at 3 a.m. and claims to be run off the road by a phantom car
You said Phantom. I see what you did there. 😂
He must have had Supervision to see the the DJI logo while flying in a shakey craft from a distance.
In case of a crash, blame DJI.
Not pilot error. In this case, an inexperienced student pilot.
On undeveloped private land no doubt…that Helicopter needed to be at operational height over private land….hope they sue the Helicopter Operator
Simple. Make both pilot and student take a polygraph test.
👍 Right on! Sounds like a cover up for one or both the student and instructor.
True.
Exactly!
Can they tell what tree they hit??? How can they say it’s a DJI Drone. There’s plenty of white drones out there WHITE the looks like DJIs but aren’t!
Exactly
There are lots of DJI copies out there. Syma, Cheerson, Autel,Xioami.etc.
Flying a helicopter that low in close proximity to trees is an accident asking to happen. The Robinson helicopter has a high industry standard for crashes.
I agree. They r just trying to come up with some reason to ban drones for good. So even if the helicopter did hit a drone, so what? It wouldn’t have caused a crash anyways. Someone is just trying to cause trouble with us drone pilots, and cover the fact that they couldn’t fly a helicopter. Besides, the “drone” has a right to fly if it wasnt near a no fly zone, and was 400 feet or below… so
I am a licensed uav pilot and have thousands of hours of flying . I respect airspace and i feel anyone that has a drone should be licensed, just like a vehicle. Imagine if people were allowed to drive a car recreationally without a license would you want your family driving next to them on the highway? recreational drone flying should be illegal unless you have a license it will kill someone someday
The rotor wash from a helicopter is over 100+mph and there is no way a small plastic drone could fly anywhere near a helicopter rotorwash without being destroyed. I’ve been flying helicopters for thirty years and this sounds like a cover up by the pilot, he struck the tree bc of his poor pilot skills and fabricated the drone so he could blame it on someone else, making false statements is a crime and if he did this then he should lose his license.
The instructor pilot is lying. His description of the drone is too precise. “A white DJI drone.” Gimme a break. Surprised he didn’t say what model it was. What in hell was he doing doing flying maneuvers that close to the ground with a student if he didn’t intend to land. A classic case of CYA.
Agreed!
So, the guy was instructing a student and could tell it was a DJI? Wow what great eye site you have!! Glad nobody got hurt but really?
I own a DJI Phantom drone and the name tag is so small that it can’t be read from ten feet away. The pilot and student must have Superman vision! The drone community call BS! The heli pilot and student are at fault and looking for an escape goat.
Dean, the Phantom does have quite a unique profile, so its not that unimaginable…
The phantom “profile” was unique when the Phantom 1 was released back in 2013 or whenever. Since then it has been cloned and copied by about a million different manufacturers, often to include the distinctive white color. The largest “DJI” or “Phantom” logo to have ever been included on any of the iterations was about 1/2″ by 1″ in size.
So, no, there is no conclusive way that the helicopter pilot ID’ed this as a phantom unless the quad also crashed and was recovered. Sorry, but improve.
Also, if I’m a helicopter pilot, and an instructor no less, I will take my chances striking a plastic toy with my R22 rather than putting my tail rotor into a tree attempting “evasive maneuvers”.
Whole episode reeks of cover story.
Wrong. There are SEVERAL drones built exactly the the same
Have you looked at the drone market? So many copies on the market.
That’s very true but there are plenty of knock-offs that look very similar to a DJI white drone
I’ll true that. This should be catagorized as “FAKE NEWS” DJI does have a hold on 70% of the drone market. Unless a drone was recovered, damaged in some way. This goes down as the media trying to put blame on hobbyists who enjoy their sport as much as the helicoptering nerds.
How about reporting a fight between a one year old vs a giant summa wrestler. The drone cannot fly anywhere near, and compete with the turbulence of a helicopter.
“…looking for an escape goat.”
LOL. Great malapropism. Although I’m sure goats are pretty good at escaping, the proper term is scape goat.
And actually it’s one word, “scapegoat.”
How could he tell it was a dji drone? That’s pretty specific. Maybe he was looking more at the make and model of the drone and not the trees in the vicinity.
Interestingly the R22 doesn’t have a good crash record, so it will be interesting to see how this story turns out…
I call BS and that helicopter pilot just sucked and needed to blame his crappy flying skills on something lol
Possibly, Bill – it does say it was a student flying the helicopter at the time…
As both an RC modeler and a helicopter pilot who has hundreds of hours in Robinson R-22’s and lots of hours flying below the minimum altitudes (sometimes illegally) I have a couple of questions. What kind of low level flying were the 2 guys doing above wooded terrain? It appears that they were also Not in their proper airspace so it is entirely possible that the DJI pilot was flying correct at under 400′ AGL and the chopper pilot intruded into his airspace. He had to be close to the ground to contact something during evasive maneuvers and also the picture of the crashed heli looks like a hovering tip over or similes as the damage did not indicate an impact from any substantial altitude. Let the facts be investigated BEFORE automatically blaming the drone pilot.
Thanks Mark – that’s the most informed comment yet…we’ll look out for the FAA report
👍 ☺️ 👌 You nailed it.
Ty well said! As a dji pilot myself I cant express how annoyed these articles make me.
For all we know it could have been a Osprey,seagull or even a pelican. They very well could be using the drone story to cover their butts. Being spooked by a large bird and panicking causing you to crash sure would be embarrassing.
I am also a DJI Drone pilot. I know you are only reporting on the testimony of the helicopter pilot and his student but facts should be taken into consideration. If it were in fact a drone, the damaged drone would have been found. There’s no way the drone could have flown away after a collision with a tail rotor of a helicopter. Drones are very delicate and a simple twig from a tree would cause significant damage. As it was pointed out by Markdj the helicopter shouldn’t have been that low in the first place. Drone pilots are getting a bad image after a couple of incidents that have happened in the past by irresponsible people. Please don’t jump to conclusions before facts are presented.
so you wanna tell me that a small drone can bring down an helicopter? seriously? what’s about this hate and fake news about drones?
is like a shark can bring down a submarine… or a bird deviate a rocket…
Not likely, but overreacting to one definitely could. I too am looking forward to the FAA report and I hope they’re not eager to blame the drone. I’m NEITHER a helicopter nor drone pilot so I don’t really have a presupposition here, but my spidey senses tell me there’s a lot more to this story.
I applaud the author for adjusting the title. I share a growing intolerance for clickbait so I’m glad to not add this site to my block list. Today. 😉
Many years ago I took the helicopter crew member class (S-271). We were shown lots of pictures of helicopte crashes caused by small objects – like a frisbee in one case. So yes, a small drone can cause the crash of a helicopter. In this case it was not a rotor strike but the evasive maneuver. Looks like everyone is jumping to conclusions here. Let the FAA finish it’s investigation and then we can do the blame game!
You nailed it. Tnx for posting.
Happy that nobody is hurt, but I’m getting sick and tired of hearing about this kind of false accusations on drones, I’m a new drone enthusiast or what ever, i own only toy grade drones, but already getting discurage of buying a real drone because there is to much discrimination on drone just because, I finally found something that I love since i love planes and flying, but this is real sickening to read. I fly my drones in doors because is like everyone is out there to get you if they see you with a drone SMH, the FAA need to start giving fines or jail time to pilots that blame drones falsely, like they have for drone pilots when they mess up.
I am also a pilot who flies experimental aircraft which have a similar cruise speed as a Robinson helicopter. Before I even finished reading the article I wasn’t buying the heli pilot’s story. I have encoutered a dji type drone in flight before at around 500ft agl. I spotted it ahead of me, a little below the horizon, and simply did a little bank to the right to avoid it. My airspeed was 65 mph at the time. It was a complete non-event. That heli pilot may have encountered a drone, but my guess is he probably tried to chase it down. With all the hysterical media reports, he probably thought he would become the first pilot to capture and help prosecute one of those evil wicked drone pilots for some perceived wrongdoing, and got his rear end handed to him by low terrain.
First of all the helicopters should not have been in the same airspace with the Drone. The maximum altitude for the Drone is 400 feet and I don’t know what the what’s the minimum altitude for helicopter is but I think the helicopter was at fault.
Secondly most dji drones have forward obstacle avoidance and I doubt the Drone could have flown into the helicopter.
It really seems based on what we know right now that the pilot acted hastily and caused his own accident what is trying to shift the liability for insurance purposes. It’ll be interesting to find out if he filed a flight plan.
Pilots make evasive maneuvers for a multitude of reasons every day. I’ve seen lots of reports of traffic conflicts, wildlife on the runway, and most amazingly a turtle on the runway that caused a crash. Almost all of these become non-incidents. Occasionally the evasive maneuver results in a crash. In these cases the pilot is sometimes held accountable by the FAA for the resulting accident, at the very least violating §91.13 Careless or reckless operation. Panic is not an option.
But, if the conflict was POSSIBLY a drone, HALT THE PRESSES!
It’s also quite possible that the drone operator (assuming that it was a drone and not a piece of trash blown up in the rotorwash) was flying perfectly legally in an open field at low altitudes when the helicopter arrives to perform practice hovering maneuvers. Also perfectly legal, but the FAA rules do say that the drone must give way to the manned aircraft. If there was a drone involved, where is the evidence that the drone was not moving away from the helicopter, giving right-of-way as required, when the helicopter pilot panicked and caused an accident?
Interestingly, there are drones that look like exact replicas of DJI’s Phantom series. I question the legitimacy of the story. The facts have not been revealed. This is sensationalism – news solely for its entertainment level.
Just for grins look up the number of students pilot fatalities in Robinson helicopters. I pesonally refuse to fly in them.
Good eyesight to be able to see the DJI on top of drone. Avoiding a drone but hitting tree. Which one?? Tough choices. I guess.
I live by a fly for life helicopter port and they do come in pretty low sometimes but thats during landing and take off. So my max alt. Is 100 ft and well within my line of sight. Which any responsible drone pilot would do. But let’s said both were at 400ft, who is wrong,the drone pilot for flying in an undeveloped area or the chop pilot for letting his student fly 400ft above trees. Either way with cameras on everything these days, even on cops maybe all air craft should have them to see who is really lieing
If the drone was flying under 300 feet and not in a nofly area the helicopter was the wrong.
The drone didn’t cause any crash; the pilot on the controls caused the crash by failure to maintain control of the helicopter. If this story is true I’ll eat my drone! BTW I’m a retired helicopter pilot with 7,500 hours of rotary-wing flight time.
Would you drive off a cliff to avoid a squirrel ? Nooooo!!! Just another cheap jab at UAV pilots hoping to cover your goof up, keep your freedom to fly without competition, and score points with the FAA . Taking a cue from the Communists Communications Network?
If the color of the drone was white, not necessarily to be a DJI, simply could be Xiaomi Mi drone. The statement of the pilot sound bizarre. Definitely pilot error
This should be rewritten: “Asshole Pilot Flying Below Regulation Altitude When Not On Approach Or Departure Causes Own Crash”
You can do that training stuff at the airport where is a controlled incitement for your helicopter. And so low you hit brush or trees? I’m pretty sure you crashed your self! Your in a helicopter, you flew to a new development, how did the kid fly there? I think you where in his airspace!!!!!!
Here in Michigan there are Billboards that tell you not to Swerve for deer just hit them…. I’m not sure but I would almost think tapping a drone would be minimal compared to tapping a tree…. And of course not to mention .. Was the Drone pilot flying in legal airspace?