Total fatalities 10 (all) Passengers 4 Fatalities 5 Passenger count 4 | Registration LQ-CGK Date 9 March 2015 Total survivors 0 Crew count 1 | |
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Site Villa Castelli, La Rioja Province, Argentina Type Eurocopter AS350B3 Écureuil Type Eurocopter AS350B3 Écureuil Similar Trigana Air Service Flight 267, 2015 Juba An‑12 crash, 2015 Pakistan Army Mil, Asiana Airlines Flight 162, 2015 Eglin Air Force Base heli | ||
On 9 March 2015, two helicopters collided near Villa Castelli in Northwest Argentina. All ten people on board the two aircraft were killed.
Contents
Aircraft
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.
Background
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.
Accident
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.
All ten people on board the two aircraft were killed in the incident, including French athletes Florence Arthaud, Camille Muffat and Alexis Vastine. The others killed were the two Argentinian pilots, and five French nationals who were members of the production team, Adventure Line Productions. Weather conditions at the time were described as "good." The other contestants were reported to have been waiting on the ground nearby when the accident occurred.
Reactions
Investigation
The Junta de Investigaciones de Accidentes de Aviación Civil (JIAAC) is responsible for investigating civil aviation accidents in Argentina. It reported on its Facebook page that it had opened an investigation. The French air crash investigation agency Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile is assisting the JIAAC in the investigation. French prosecutors have also started an investigation. The reconstruction of both flight paths was done with iwi (www.iwi.eu) method based on witness video information.
Julio Martínez, deputy for the Radical Civic Union, announced that LQ-CGK was an official helicopter of La Rioja province, only meant to be used for medical emergencies. Governor Luis Beder Herrera confirmed this statement and stated that the helicopter had been "lent" to a tourism company. Martínez requested to be informed of whether there was a contract, who was paid, and who authorized the use of the helicopter for other purposes than those assigned by law.