All flying by HK Aviation Club suspended after fatal helicopter crash

The Chief Flying Instructor (Helicopters) of the Hong Kong Aviation Club announced yesterday that all flying was suspended until further notice, following Sunday’s fatal helicopter crash. The suspension includes all types of club aircraft, fixed wing and rotary wing.

On Sunday a woman lost her husband and three children their father when a Robinson 44 crashed near Kadoorie Farm. Witness reports are contradictory, but it does appear the aircraft broke up in mid-air. Also, it is not privately owned as first reported, but another ill-fated  club aircraft. The Aviation Club has had a terrible run of accidents.  This is the sixth in as many years. The crashes have involved fixed wings and rotary wings. It was not long ago that club pilots could boast that no one had ever been killed in a club aircraft in living memory*. Then came the crash about three years ago of a Zlin 242L that killed an instructor known as MT.  After a second club-owned Zlin was pranged last year by a 23-year-old pilot doing aerobatics (he miraculously walked away) the club suspended fixed wing flying for about six months as it undertook a safety review supervised by the Civil Aviation Department.

The experienced pilot who died on Sunday was  49-year-old Andrew Wong, a lawyer with Leung Pansy Tang and Chua Solicitors.

A witness said the Robinson 44’s engine stopped, then started again sounding strange. He said its tail broke off. The aircraft crashed onto the lower slopes of Hong Kong’s highest mountain, Tai Mo Shan. Explosions were heard. Burning wreckage spread over a wide area, some landing on Lam Tin Road. More than 100 emergency service crew arrived in fire engines and ambulances. There was no hope for Mr Wong, whose body was badly burned. Mrs Wong, his wife, visited the crash site to identify the body, now in a morgue.

The area where he was flying is known to light aircraft pilots as Kadoorie Gap.  It is the gap in the hills most frequently used by the pilots for entry to and exit from the Sek Kong airfield circuit. Leaving Sek Kong helicopters and fixed wings fly through the gap at 1500 ft. Returning to Sek Kong they are required to fly at 2000 ft for separation.

Mr Wong had taken off in a R44 from the airfield at about 4.40pm. The accident occurred at about 5:30 pm.  As light aircraft flights in Hong Kong’s limited air space usually take only about an hour, Mr Wong was probably returning from his flight. Sek Kong airfield is a base now of the People’s Liberation Army, which keeps a small number of Dauphin helicopters there and flies in larger aircraft from China from time to time. The PLA allows the airfield to be used for private flying on seven weekend days a month, usually.

In recent years the R44 has been the world’s most widely purchased light aircraft. It has been manufactured by the Robinson Helicopter Co. of the U.S. since 1992. The aircraft has four seats, a two-bladed main rotor of 38 ft diameter, a two-bladed tail rotor and skid landing gear.  It cruises at about 110 knots or 130 mph. Australian and New Zealand civil aviation officials have found the R44 is prone to post-accident fires.

* A gynaecologist named Tony ver der Klee was killed when he lost control of a privately owned Pitt Special during low-level aerobatics in the 1980s.