WEEK 36
H2F brings you the ‘helicopter mayday of the week’ with a short accident report summary. I tell you what happened. You think more about why it happened. We all learn from it. Because that’s what accident reporting is for.
TITLE
EC130 CFIT in degraded visual environment.
WHAT?
A privately operated, EC130 crashed into the sea shortly after departing Vilsandi Island, Estonia, on a non-commercial passenger flight. The helicopter encountered deteriorating visibility during low-level VFR flight over water.
WHERE?
Approximately 400 m off Vilsandi Island, western Estonia.
WHEN?
6 July 2025, 11:08 local time. Final investigation dated 26 June 2026.
HOW?
The captain, a PPL(H) holder with 134.6 total flying hours and no instrument rating, was flying from the left seat. The second pilot, seated centrally, held an ATPL(H), had over 10,600 hours and had previously instructed the captain. Neither held an instrument rating.
On departure, the helicopter climbed beneath the overcast cloud layer, reaching just over 200ft at 100kt groundspeed. It continued towards the coastline, remaining below the minimum prescribed VFR height.
Approaching the coast at approximately 300 ft and 60 kt, the helicopter encountered significantly lower cloud and poorer visibility over the sea. In the following seconds, collective was reduced to approximately 30%, engine torque fell and the aircraft descended at around 700 ft/min until it was only 15 m (49 ft) above the water. The captain initiated a rapid recovery, raising collective towards 100% and applying forward cyclic and right pedal but the descent rate increased further, reaching approximately 2000ft/min. The investigation considered that vortex ring state probably developed during this final phase, limiting recovery effectiveness. Six seconds later, the main rotor struck the water and the helicopter impacted the sea.
CONDITIONS?
The nearest weather station recorded drizzle, visibility of 4.3 km and overcast cloud at just 230 ft. The captain had consulted other more distant weather stations, SkyDemon and Windy, but not the nearest observations or the official aviation forecast. Conditions over the sea were worse than over the island. The low cloud ceiling prevented compliance with the normal 500-ft minimum VFR height.
OUTCOME?
The helicopter was destroyed. Following impact, the captain opened the left-side exits and began evacuating passengers while the second pilot activated the emergency flotation system. Inflation caused the already right-listing helicopter to capsize. All seven occupants escaped onto its underside and sustained only minor injuries.
No lifejackets were carried. Survivors alerted themselves using mobile phones and a rescue boat arrived after around 15 minutes.
WHY?
Investigators highlighted inadvertent flight into instrument meteorological conditions, resulting from the decision to depart and continue VFR in deteriorating weather. Loss of adequate visual references beneath very low cloud over water led to an inadvertent descent and collision with the sea.
The investigation raised four interacting human-factors issues:
1) Effective pre-flight weather assessment. More distant, relatively favourable observations were considered while local evidence of substantially poorer departure conditions was omitted.
2) Visual illusions and perception issues while crossing from land to water, which removed terrain, contrast and shoreline cues, degrading the crew’s ability to judge attitude, height and flight path.
3) Crew coordination whereby the considerably more experienced second pilot occupied a monitoring role, but emergency task-sharing and intervention responsibilities were insufficiently defined or trained. His presence and experience did not prevent the accident.
4) Recovery margins were insufficient having departed and continued flight below minima. Recognition of the inadvertent descent came at approximately 50 ft, leaving insufficient height for recovery, when probable VRS further compromised this.
No pre-impact technical malfunction was identified.
The investigation also found that a filed flight plan had not been activated. Although the helicopter transmitted ADS-B data, these were not on controllers’ operational displays. Consequently, external alerting depended on the survivors themselves, creating an additional vulnerability in an otherwise survivable accident.
REFERENCE?
Estonian Safety Investigation Bureau. (2026). Accident with Airbus Helicopters EC130 off the coast of Vilsandi Island, Estonia, on 6 July 2025 (Final Investigation Report A060725).
Note:
Accident reports selected from the following open source databases: US NTSB; UK AAIB; Flight Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety Network; Australia’s ATSB. Ireland’s AAIU; Taiwan’s TTSB; France’s BEA; Spain’s CIAIAC. Germany’s BFU.
