MT-03 down near Hannover, Germany

[Gyro_Kai]

An MT-03 2 seater gyro came down in Germany and caught fire. The passenger died in the flames, the pilot was heavily burnt but out of ER.
The two men were trained police helicopter pilots with long flight experience.
No details known so far, some eye witnesses claim the fire started in the air, others say only on the ground. The fuel tanks are under the passenger seat, the motor is a standard Rotax 912S or 914 behind the passenger seat.
Picture of a working one (not the crashed one!) included.

Link to German news story with small picture and video link.
http://www.neuepresse.de/hannover/284172.html

We, in the very small German community, are devastated.
I'm currently receiving training on this type and am reasonably worried.

Kai.

[Racer]

I am very sorry to hear this news, This is terrible.

[PTKay]

Really sorry to hear...

(Typical, the news are writing and talking about a "helicopter" accident...)

[barnstorm2]

I am very sorry to hear of this.

a mid air fire seems pretty uncommon.

I would urge you to keep and open mind and evaluate the crash investication which could take some time.

All aircraft are dangerous.

Several people have been killed on motorcycles and autos in my city lately but I don't think that has kept many kids out of driver training.

I hope the reason for the crash can be determined.

[Hognose]

Gents --

I went to the link Chris posted, and there is a short video report. (Click on the video-camera icon or the words "Der Absturz" ["the crash"] next to it). Most of the facts given in the video are the same as in the report, which Chris has already translated for you who do not know what Mark Twain called "The Awful German Language."

The one bit of news in the video that was not in the story is that the pilot is apparently out of mortal danger.

As far as accident causes, etc. -- we are too early to know, by a wide margin. My own experience is that the closer information comes to the moment of an accident, the less accurate it tends to be.

cheers

-=K=-

[Gyrobound]

For those that can't read German I translated the article using Word.

Helicopter crash: A cause still unclearly

After the helicopter crash in jump with Hanover with a dead one and a severely wounded person continue to look for experts for the cause of accident. Experts should examine and with the manufacturer for possible complications with the model concerned ask the burned out wreck, communicated the police on Wednesday. The witness data to the crash on Tuesday are contradictory. According to some statements the helicopter exploded in air, after others already turned out it only at the soil in fire. On board the helicopter of a flight association were two policemen, who were started of Hildesheim from to a private flight.

The ultralight helicopter was in the proximity of the hunting seat jumps fallen on a meadow and burned out completely. While the pilot with heavy burns came into a special hospital, could not be helped to his colleague any longer. Both policemen belonged to the helicopter relay Hanover . The pilot applied in police circles as experienced helicopter pilots. He had expressed himself briefly after the misfortune, should be asked by the police however still in detail to the course of events.

Scott

[troed@aon.at]

Unfortunately there are no further news on the MT03 accident and we will probably never receive the REAL truth. Too many interests are involved: the manufactureres´, the pilots´and the Charter Company´s. The principle point is: can we trust the technique of the permanent changing design of a copied Gyro and the teaching methods in Germany ?

We will see..... or not

Greetings from Austria

Angelo

http://www.perfectsmileandface.com/FLUGSCHRAUBER.htm