1993 Llyn Padarn helicopter crash
Raf Westland Wessex · Tail rotor failure
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 3 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 4
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Military
Westland Wessex
- Aircraft type
- Westland WESSEX
- Category
- Helicopter · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- XR524
- Operator
- Raf
- Onboard fatalities
- 3
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft propeller/rotor
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The 1993 Llyn Padarn helicopter crash occurred on 12 August 1993, when an RAF Westland Wessex helicopter, serial number XR524, with 3 aircrew and 4 Air Training Corps cadet passengers on board suffered a catastrophic tail rotor failure and plunged into Llyn Padarn, a lake in North Wales. Three passengers were killed.
Accident
The aircraft departed RAF Valley on 12 August 1993, for a routine search and rescue training mission over North Wales. Aboard were three crewmembers and four Air Training Corps Cadets from Northern England. As they were flying over the lake, the pilot performed a planned autopilot failure simulation. However, the aircraft encountered a genuine emergency when it lost the drive to its tail rotor. Without it to counteract the torque produced by the main rotor, the helicopter became uncontrollable and started spinning before impacting the water. The crash was caught on amateur video.
The three crew and one cadet were able to escape the wreckage. She recounted:
Several persons, including a canoeing monitor rushed to the crash site and rescued the survivors. The three remaining occupants of the helicopter were presumably trapped in the wreckage and drowned.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
As the accident aircraft belonged to the RAF, the responsibility for investigating the crash lay not with the Air Accidents Investigation Branch but with the military. The Ministry of Defence released a report in November 1995. The RAF investigators determined the loss of power on the tail rotor to have been caused by two toothed flanges in the tail boom failing to engage properly. The tail of the Westland Wessex can be folded for storage and transport. The shaft that drives the tail rotor is broken and then remade by means of a disconnect coupling using two flanges. When the tail was last unfolded, the two flanges failed to mesh completely. It is hypothesized that the disconnection of the autopilot just prior the accident increased the stress on the tail section, triggering the failure. After the two halves of the transmission train became decoupled, the tail rotor was not powered and ceased functioning. The crew then had no means to control the aircraft.
Beginning January 1996, a civilian inquest was also held in Llandudno.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1993 Llyn Padarn helicopter crash” (revision 1336109414, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 1993 Llyn Padarn helicopter crash
- Revision
- 1336109414 · 2026-02-02 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q4588616
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "1993 Llyn Padarn helicopter crash" (page 38473443, revision 1336109414)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.