2015 Canary Islands SAR Super Puma crash
Spanish Air and Space Force Unknown · Mechanical failure
From Villa Cisneros to Gando Air Base
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
- 0
- 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
- 0
- 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
Unknown
- 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
- HD.21-7
- Operator
- Spanish Air and Space Force
- Onboard fatalities
- 3
- Route
- From Villa CisnerosTo Gando Air Base
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft propeller/rotor
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
The Canary Islands SAR Super Puma crash was an air accident that occurred on 22 October 2015, when a helicopter of the Search and Rescue Service of the Spanish Air Force crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, some 40 nautical miles southwest of Villa Cisneros, in Western Sahara. On board were Captain José Morales Rodríguez, Lieutenant Saúl López Quesada and Sergeant Jhonander Ojeda Alemán, who lost their lives in the accident.
Accident
The helicopter was deployed to Senegal to carry out military manoeuvres.
On 22 October at approximately 14:05 (local time), while it was returning to its base, the aircraft disappeared in the Atlantic, some 280 nautical miles from Gando and 40 nautical miles southwest of Dakhla.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
After the accident, the Commission for the Technical Investigation of Military Aircraft Accidents (CITAAM) carried out an investigation to determine the causes of the accident. In its report, CITAAM concluded that the most probable cause of the accident was a dynamic imbalance of the helicopter's main rotor, originating from a problem in the frequency adapter of one of the blades. This failure caused damage to other components of the main rotor, such as the possible breakage of a pitch change rod, which resulted in the loss of control of the aircraft and the impossibility of carrying out a controlled ditching.
CITAAM also highlighted that the aircraft had been maintained in accordance with the maintenance programme in force in the Air Force and that all applicable technical and safety orders had been complied with. In addition, it recognised that the crew acted correctly in the face of the emergency, deploying the helicopter's floats in an attempt at ditching.
Subsequently, in May 2019, the military justice system closed the criminal case, concluding that the accident was due to a technical failure with no one responsible, neither among the crew nor among the maintenance personnel.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Spanish Wikipedia article “Accidente del Super Puma del SAR en Canarias (2015)” (revision 172780349, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
Spanish Wikipedia article: Accidente del Super Puma del SAR en Canarias (2015)
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 172780349 · 2026-04-01 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q133843700
- 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
- es Wikipedia article "Accidente del Super Puma del SAR en Canarias (2015)" (page 11070707, revision 172780349), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
- Map position
- none
- 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 Spanish Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.