Investigators said to find that flotation device failed in deadly helicopter crash
Report says electrical short hampered pilots’ ability to control helicopter during crash landing; aircraft hit water on its right side and sank with two crew members still on board
Investigations into a fatal IDF helicopter crash at sea that killed two pilots has found that a flotation device on the aircraft was damaged on impact and failed to deploy properly, leading to the aircraft sinking to a depth of 12 meters, Channel 12 reported Friday.
The unsourced report said the findings came after air force investigators completed the collection of all the helicopter parts and debris.
The report contradicted statements made by IAF Brig. Gen. Amir Lazar, who told reporters earlier this week that the flotation device had deployed properly.
The helicopter, a Eurocopter AS565 Panther, known by the IAF as an “Atalef,” or bat, is specially designed for naval operations and is able to make emergency landings directly on the water with a built-in flotation device.
According to Lazar, this flotation system was activated by the pilots as they made the emergency landing and it deployed correctly, which allowed a naval officer on board to escape. “We don’t know why the pilots’ didn’t,” he said at the time.
The helicopter went down just before 9 pm on Monday. An initial investigation found that the aircraft apparently suffered a malfunction in its left motor, forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing at sea.
Capt. Ron Birman managed to bail out of the helicopter, but the pilots, Lt. Col. Erez Sachyani and Maj. Chen Fogel, did not and were found by rescuers, lifeless, still strapped into their seat belts in the cockpit, Lazar said.
According to Channel 12’s Friday report, subsequent investigations found that the malfunction and fire on the left motor also caused an electrical short in the helicopter that affected the ability of the pilots to properly control the helicopter as they brought it down for a crash landing.
As such the helicopter hit the water with force on its right side, damaging part of the flotation device and eventually causing the helicopter to sink to a depth of 12 meters.
While Birman was able to escape as the helicopter hit the water, the report said, the pilots could not get out.
Birman, who is recovering from a broken vertebra and mild hypothermia, on Tuesday described how he tried multiple times to pull the pilots out of the aircraft but was unable to do so.
“I was able to get myself out of the sinking helicopter and then, after many attempts to get my friends Sachyani and Fogel out, I was rescued by a naval police patrol,” Birman said in a video statement released by the military.
The initial probe found that shortly after exiting the aircraft, Birman called the head of the helicopter squadron to inform him of the crash, as the power outage had also knocked out the radio, preventing the pilots from calling for help.
The helicopter went down roughly an hour after it had taken off from Ramat David Air Base to perform a training flight. It was close enough to shore for onlookers in Haifa to clearly see it.
Channel 12 reported that investigators were also probing if there had been problems with the rescue coordination between the Air Force and the Navy.
The report said that Air Force chief Amikam Norkin had ordered the investigators to submit their findings by Tuesday, with the Air Force keen to return its grounded fleet of Atalefs to service, noting that were used on Israel’s missile boats.
Judah Ari Gross contributed to this article.
