C8/2004L Four helicopters flying within a danger area in Sodankylä on 19 November 2004

On Friday, November 19, 2004 between the hours of 11:50 and 12:10, four Utti Jaeger Regiment MD 500 training helicopters flew into an active temporary danger area EF D121 Tähtelä in Sodankylä. The Accident Investigation Board Finland decided to investigate the incident and appointed airline pilot Jussi Haila as investigator.

The helicopters had been practicing in Northern Finland November 15-17, 2004. The detachment intended to fly from Ivalo to its home base on November 18, 2004, but due to poor weather, the return was moved to the following day. The pilots gathered on the morning of November 19, 2004 in the flight briefing room of the Ivalo airport administration building. They decided to fly the cross-country flight as individual aircraft and carry out the flight preparation together. The pilots obtained weather information from text TV, by calling a meteorologist in Rovaniemi, and by ordering the significant weather chart (SWC) from Rovaniemi flight briefing. One of the pilots asked about activity in the firing ranges, but did not request information about other danger areas. The pilots did not obtain a VFR bulletin. They moved the departures to eleven o’clock due to the weather in Rovaniemi. At that time also opened Ivalo air traffic control, which informed the aircraft of the departure times and wired these to Rovaniemi air traffic control. The pilots were not in radio communication with Rovaniemi air traffic control. The helicopters flew about five minutes apart at an altitude of 30-100 meters. The flight weather was sufficient for VFR flight in accordance with regulations. In Sodankylä, at temporary danger area EF D121 Tähtelä, atmospheric measurements were being performed with a balloon tethered to the ground. At the moment of the incident, a balloon 4.4 meters long and 2 meters in diameter was at an altitude of about 1 000 meters inside a cloud. Visibility was about three kilometers, cloud height was about 300 meters, and wind from the south at four meters per second. The helicopters passed the balloon’s tether line at a distance of about 700-2 000 meters. The pilots did not see the balloon or its tether line.

During the investigation, it was determined that the guidance given to the pilots for flight planning was sufficient. The distribution and use of aviation safety information published by the Civil Aviation Administration on the Internet should be developed.

The dangerous situation arose when the helicopter pilots did not obtain a VFR bulletin for their use in flight preparation, or did not otherwise ascertain all of the existing danger areas on the route and flew into active danger area EF D121 while avoiding firing range D94.

The Utti Jaeger Regiment should direct its pilots' attention to the obtaining of necessary information for cross-country flights. The need for, and use of, a VFR bulletin in flight planning should be particularly emphasized. The Utti Jaeger Regiment should also clarify the usefulness of the AIS and MET pages on the Civil Aviation Administration's Internet site in its operation. For this reason, flight detachments or individual aircraft should have wireless Internet connections available for their use when operating from outside bases.

The Civil Aviation Administration should obtain aviation authority approval for weather pages (MET) published on the Internet, as well as see that airport flight briefing areas have a printer-equipped internet connection for pilot use so that flight safety information published on the Internet can be utilized in flight operations.

C8/2004L Report (pdf, 0.66 Mt)