News Source Guyana Reports : A draft final report on the deadly helicopter crash that claimed the lives of five Guyana Defence Force servicemen in December 2023 has found that while the aircraft was in “excellent working condition” at the time of the accident, there was a critical lack of specialized training among pilots to operate the helicopter in certain weather conditions.
The draft report was compiled by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Department of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA).
According to the leaked report, the Bell 412 helicopter had no known defects at the time of the crash, with engines, rotors, electrics, and avionics operating optimally.
“The helicopter was in excellent working condition prior to and during the accident flight. The helicopter had no known defect (except for the weather radar), and the engines, rotors, electrics and avionics were operating optimally up to the time of the accident,” the report stated.
However, investigators found critical gaps in pilot preparation. While the pilots held valid pilot and medical licenses, neither possessed a valid instrument rating for the Bell 412 helicopter or any other type of helicopter or aircraft and may not have been adequately prepared for an Inadvertent Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IIMC) encounter—an unintentional encounter with poor weather conditions such as clouds, fog, or darkness while flying under Visual Flight Rules.
“At the time of the accident, the helicopter was flown into clouds (IIMC) in a mountainous and heavily forested area. The crews’ instrument flying skills were limited due to their lack of instrument rating training on the helicopter type. The ‘cockpit gradient’ was very steep by both experience and military rank and CRM and cockpit management was unacceptable,” the report concluded.
Investigators also found that the GCAA had no flight operations inspector current on the Bell 412 helicopter prior to and up to the time of the report to adequately carry out regulatory surveillance and oversight activities.
The report noted that cockpit voice recorder (CVR) files were decompressed with crew channels containing no audio. The cockpit area microphone channel contained two hours of audio data, however, the signal-to-noise ratio was very poor, primarily capturing helicopter noise with crew voices obscured.
“Advanced spectral de-noising techniques were used by the NTSB on the recording to attempt to improve the intelligibility of the voices in the signal, but the background noises of the helicopter still masked the voice audio,” the report stated.
Investigators found that for most of the flight, the helicopter was hand-flown before being switched to autopilot. At 15:14:20, the helicopter was coupled to the autopilots and flown in attitude retention mode with altitude hold upper mode active.
Pitch excursions with vertical speed changes were observed approximately 40 seconds after autopilot modes were engaged. At 15:17:20, master caution lights became active, indicating that both autopilots either failed or were inadvertently switched off.
The helicopter then flew into inadvertent instrument meteorological conditions in an area of dense forest with large trees and mountains. Investigators suspect that visual impairment caused by opaque clouds may have caused the crew to suffer from spatial disorientation and loss of situational awareness, resulting in loss of control of the aircraft.
The helicopter collided with large trees on the mountainside and fell to the ground. Fuel and hydraulic tanks ruptured, with leaking fluids catching fire due to spontaneous combustion, causing the helicopter to burn down.
Five servicemen lost their lives in the crash: Commander of the 1st Infantry Battalion Col. Michael Shahoud; Veteran Pilot Lt. Col. Michael Charles, who was in command of the helicopter; Lt. Col. Sean Welcome; retired Brigadier Gary Beaton; and Sergeant Jason Khan.
Two servicemen survived the deadly crash.
The report’s findings highlight critical gaps in pilot training and regulatory oversight that contributed to the tragedy, pointing to the need for enhanced safety protocols and specialized training requirements for helicopter operations in challenging weather conditions.
