Aircraft crash videos

July 6th, 2022 - The Airbus Helicopters AS 350B3 Ecureuil avoided a crash at the Vieille lighthouse, off the Pointe du Raz, France, during a maintenance operation of the Lighthouse. The helicopter was removing one of the frames from the lighthouse's lantern. It lifted the load, became unbalanced and the pilot lost control. A worker on ground was injured as the load caught him against the wall. The pilot recovered the aircraft a few meters from the surface of the sea. Emergency floating devices were activated, which cause the smoke visible on the video. The helicopter was operated by Mont Blanc Hélicoptères Bretagne.

Little Rock, USA, AR – August 16th 2018 - The Bell TH-67 helicopter belonging to Little Rock Police Department was performing a maintenance ground run after new equipment was put in the helicopter. A wind gust destabilized suddenly the helicopter. The helicopter has been destroyed. The sole pilot onboard was seriously injured.

Mi-24 or Mi-35 helicopter being struck by a MANPADS missile, near Kiev, Ukraine. All the helicopter crew was killed. The video is undated, but has been released on March 5th 2022.
Man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS) are light portable surface-to-air missiles. They are guided weapons and are a threat to low-flying aircraft, especially helicopters.

An Airbus Helicopter H145, callsign Dragon 972, operated the French government civil-protection-branch hit three high voltage power lines near the shoreline of Schoelcher, Martinique, during a rescue operation on April 3rd 2019.
The helicopter had just winched up a person out of the sea from a boat 150 meter offshore. Rescue-diver and the victim were hanging on the winch below the helicopter, when it flew into the power lines. The H145 is equipped with cable scissors, which succeeded in cutting the power lines and the crew rapidly recover the control of their machine. The winch-cable released and both persons fell down into the water, but swam safely to shore.

Crash of a Squirrel helicopter in Auckland, New Zealand – The rotorcraft was erecting a seven story Christmas tree. The helicopters rotor struck a cable causing the aircraft to crash. Miraculously, the pilot suffered only minor injuries.
The accident happened in November 2011. The causes of the accident have been established: massive out of balance forces tore through the helicopter after it struck the lifting line, which was attached to the bottom of the helicopter and the top of a nearby tower. After raising the tower, the helicopter descended to hover at about 5m so the lifting line could be detached from its hook by the rigging supervisor on the ground. When the rigging supervisor jumped up to grab the line, it instantly tightened and touched the helicopter's main rotor blades. The force of the impact caused major structural damage and the aircraft hit the ground.

This Robinson R44 Astro helicopter crashed on a car in Kroonstad, South Africa. One pilot and three passengers were on board. There were no fatalities and only minor injuries were reported.
Investigation determined that the pilot had inadvertently switched off the main hydraulics instead to switch the speaker to the on position. The pilot therefore had no control of the aircraft prior to impact.

This news helicopter went out of control and crashed on the roof of a building in Brooklyn, New York. The chopper broke in two. 3 people were onboard (pilots and reporter). All of them escaped with minor injuries.

This Bell UH-1 Iroquois chopper, also known as Huey, suffered an engine failure just before landing. The crew tried to perform an autorotation landing, but missed the maneuver.

This helicopter, carrying the Colombian security service president, fell and crashed seconds after take-off. Though the impact is quite violent, there is no fatality.

Australian Black Hawk crashing while attempting to land on an aircraft carrier during a training mission.

This CH-53 helicopter is being air-to-air refuelled, but as it is approaching the tanker’s hose, the chopper suddenly pitches up and its rotor cut out its refuelling boom.

This rescue helicopter was called to rescue hikers in the mountain. After having loaded the injured people, the chopper tried to climb, but this went terribly wrong.

This helicopter makes a looping during an airshow, but it goes terribly wrong. The chopper crashes and bursts into flames. The pilot is killed.

The tail of this CH-53 helicopter enter into resonance while the chopper was performing a military mission at low level (the video shows clearly the strong vibrations on the tail). The chopper, out of control, crashed and burst into flames.

On July 23rd 2006, in South Africa, this working on a fire MI-8 helicopter lost power just after filling its bambi bucket. The bucket is released, but the chopper is unable to recover and crashed in a quarry.

Two people crashed their personal helicopter in Tacoma, Washington, USA. Both survived the accident with only minor injuries.

The pilot of this medical helicopter missed his landing and crashed.

This BO105 helicopter belonging to the Spanish civil guards (Guardia Civil) displaying at a seafront crashes into the sea on 17th March 2004.

This US registered Helicopter BO105 violently crashed during an aerobatic maneuver. The chopper exploded, and the pilot was killed.

This Agusta 109C helicopter crashed in January 5th 2009, in Itupeva, 73 km North West of Sao Paulo, Brazil. One passenger was killed, and the five other occupants were injured. The chopper was caught on surveillance video camera footage making a rapid descent to the landing area, upon which it impacted the ground with great force. The main rotor tips also struck the ground. The helicopter then caught fire.

This BO105 crashed in water on November 18th 2009 with five on board near Marina Beach in Indonesia. The helicopter was involved in search and rescue training when the helicopter flew too low and one of the skids caught the water. Three aboard the chopper were injured.

This Mi-2 helicopter was performing a demonstration for an airshow. The pilot made a rapid descent and did not manage to reduce the descent rate before impacting the ground.

This Schweizer 300 crashed during an air show. Stunt pilot was performing a practice maneuver called a wingover. The helicopter looped and then unexpectedly crashed.

Grenchen airfield – June 18th 2008 – Amazing video of a helicopter of model Ecureuil belonging to the company Heli-Swiss crashing while it was landing. The helicopter turned on its own axis and came to a standstill on its side. There were no injuries, although the helicopter suffered major damaged.

This police helicopter was performing a training exercise in Western Colombia. It crashed while landing. Two police officers received minor injuries.

Seen from inside. This accident occured on January 12th 2001. An undetermined reason caused the engine of thei Bell 206B helicopter to flame out. The pilot performs an autorotation, but low airspeed and altitude made it difficult. The helicopter struck the ground hard and slid 20 to 30 feet. It spun around and rolled over on its right side. The pilot and both passengers were injured.

In 2002, this MH53 Pave Low was conducting operations on a Navy ship when it drifted a wee bit too close to the ships antennas. The chopper was belonging to the 21st Special Operations Squadron from Mildenhall, England.

A Navy CH-46 Sea Knight's aft engine bursts into flames on takeoff filling fuselage with flames and smoke. The video is taken from inside the chopper.
A leaking transmission line was spraying fluid into the aft generator causing the fire. The accident happened in September 1998 aboard the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard.

This stupid accident could have been dramatic. On August 5th 2004, during take-off, the main rotor of this Robinson R44 chopper contacted an open hangar door, causing the helicopter to fall. The violent impact with the ground caused the skids to collapse and the main rotor to sever the tail boom. Among the 4 people onboard, one received minor injuries, and 3 were uninjured.

The chopper crash in a grass field after the tail rotor broke. The helicopter has probably been shot down by enemy forces.

This Italian army NH90 helicopter crashed in the Bracciano Lake during a public flight demonstration on June 1st 2008, killing the pilot. The other 2 people on board were rescued and survived the injuries. The helicopter was at the end of its display in the Ali sul Lago airshow, at Vigna di Valle airport, when it touched the surface of water and broke up in many pieces before sinking.

This Hughes 500 helicopter was about to land when it suddenly rolls over with catastrophic results.

This Enstrom 480 tries to take off from a ship in severe weather conditions. The pilot looses control on take off and has a tail rotor strike onboard a ship.

The scene happened on a military cruiser. While the crew is trying to pull the Seahawk into the hangar, high winds tip it. The helicopter is finally rolled over on its side.

South Africa - An AS-350 helicopter takes off to a hover. The pilot loses control after transitioning from the hover, crashes and hits a car.

April 26th, 1987 - Rubidoux, CA, USA - This Hughes 269b went out of control and collided with the ground during a take off to a hover. The pilot was learning to fly it. He was scheduled for his first flight lesson on the day of the accident. The instructor told the student pilot to wait for him and not to touch anything. While waiting for the flight instructor, the student pilot started the aircraft, ran it up to full rpm, and then began to increase the collective pitch control. The helicopter climbed vertically to a high hover and the pilot lost control. He received minor injuries.

This Mi-2 crash took place in Sweden while giving a ride to a man celebrating his 100th birthday. Conditions were hot, and the helicopter was heavily loaded. They apparently suffered control problems from the start, yet the pilot inexplicably decided to continue his departure, and hit a tree. Everyone survived the crash, but the centenarian succumbed to his injuries a few days later.

This Puma SA-330BA belonging to the French Army crashed in April 1999 during a training exercise of the French GIGN (police special forces), near Les Mureaux in France. The helicopter landed with a pitch angle too high in order to avoid missing the landing spot. The tail hit the ground, breaking the tail rotor. The crew managed to lie the chopper down rapidly, thus avoiding hurting people waiting their turn in the vicinity. Only light injuries onboard.

This emergency rescue helicopter almost became the emergency itself. The BK 117 was about to land to pick up a victim in Phoenix (USA) when it suddenly lost power on one of its two engines. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

This small helicopter suffers an engine failure, hits the ground very hard, and breaks apart. The rate of descent is high and the pilot manages to use the stored rotor energy to flare before impact, which saves his life.

A military exercise involving two Blackhawk helicopters went terribly wrong when the two helicopters collided in midair, on June 1996 in Fort Campbell (USA, KY). 6 soldiers were killed. Some passengers however survived.

May 2006 - The Mi-14 Haze amphibious helicopter was hovering over the water when the pilot attempted to fly forward. The drag from the water tilted the massive chopper forward and the rotor blades hit the water. That's when the engine exploded and the helicopter rolled into the water. 12 members of the crew were rescued but the pilot was killed.

The vibrations resulting from the rotor destructs this Chinook helicopter. This ground test is basically an illustration of the danger of the resonance phenomenon.

This helicopter almost crashed during an air show in Ohlsdorf, Germany, in 2004. After an impressive climb, the pilot comes straight back down on the runway axis. He pulls up a bit too late and hits the ground. Luckily, the angle is shallow and the skids rebound it back into the air.

This Mi-17 helicopter crashed in the snow during an operation in a mountainous area, on August 6th 2005. Passengers and crew members managed to escape before the chopper erupted in flames.

This helicopter Bell 206LT Twin Ranger assigned to the BESCAM (Special brigades of Citizen Security of the Community of Madrid) crashed near Madrid shorlty after take-off on December 1st, 2005. There is no fatality.

During the installation of an olympic flame at Seoul, the pilot of this helicopter descended too low. The aircraft crashed onto a bridge. The 3 people onboard were killed.

The twin-rotor CH-46E Sea Knight crashed in December 1999 as the helicopter was approaching the Navy tanker Pecos, which the Marines were going to board assault-style. 11 men were pulled quickly from the waters after the helicopter struck the ocean, but the 7 others were killed.

This V22 Osprey crashed into its maiden demonstration flight at a Boeing helicopter flight test center in Wilmington, DE (11 June 1991). There were no serious injuries in the crash, which was blamed on gyro wiring problems.

This helicopters failed to maintain proper separation, the rotors hit and they both loose control.

A Taiwanese SA365 Dauphin crashes into a river during rescue operation