C5N helicopter accident
MBB Bo 105 · Not yet clarified
From San Fernando Airport (SADF) to San Fernando International Airport
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA10WA338
- 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
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 2 · 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 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- 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
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
MBB Bo 105
- Aircraft type
- MBB BO-105
- Category
- Helicopter
- 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
- LV-WJX
- Operator
- C5N
- Onboard fatalities
- 2
- Route
- From San Fernando Airport (SADF), Buenos AiresTo San Fernando International Airport
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · cruise
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- System/component malfunction/failure (non-power)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
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 C5N helicopter crash was an aviation accident that occurred on 18 June 2010 when shortly after The Bo 105 aircraft registered LV-WJX, operated by the news channel C5N, crashed in a residential neighbourhood of the town of Villa Martelli, Argentina, causing the death of its pilot and of a cameraman who was on board.
C5N became popularly known in its early days for having its own helicopter, allowing it to carry out aerial coverage while its competitors reported from the ground.
Accident
The accident occurred a few minutes after 9 in the morning, when the MBB Bo 105 helicopter registered LV-WJX was returning to San Fernando International Airport after carrying out aerial coverage of a traffic accident.
The aircraft plunged to the ground onto the front of a house at the intersection of Bernardo de Irigoyen and Güemes, in Villa Martelli, Vicente López Partido, and after the impact it caught fire.
As a result, the pilot Enrique Miguel Vila, aged 51, and the cameraman Fernando González, aged 25, died.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The causes were investigated by the Civil Aviation Accident Investigation Board (JIAAC), which published its final report in 2013. The accident was attributed to a total loss of main rotor power, produced "by the catastrophic collapse of the sun gear wheel, belonging to the main transmission gearbox", which in turn was caused by a failure of the lubrication system. A metal particle sensor in the transmission gearbox oil, which had been recommended by the manufacturer since 1979 but was neither mandatory nor installed on this helicopter, could have prevented the accident.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Spanish Wikipedia article “Accidente del helicóptero de C5N” (revision 175051711, 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
NTSB narrative
On June 18, 2010, about 1118 universal Coordinated Time (UTC),an Bolkow BO-105, Argentina registration LV-WJX, operated by a private owner on a business flight, to photograph a automobile accident, collided with tall trees, overhead power lines, and struck the roof of a residence during its descent into a densely populated residential neighborhood. The pilot and photographer were killed, and the helicopter was destroyed by post impact fire. The flight originated from San Fernando Airport, Buenos Aires, Argentina, at an undetermined time.
This investigation is under the jurisdiction of the Government of Argentina. This report is for informational purposes only and contains information released by the Government of Argentina. For further information contact:
Junta de Investigaciones de Accidentes de Aviacion Civil (JIAAC) Republica Argentina Fax: 54-11-4381-6333 jiaaci@speedy.com.ar
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Spanish Wikipedia article: Accidente del helicóptero de C5N
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 175051711 · 2026-08-26 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q2885223
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record ERA10WA338
- Event ID
- 20100628X40547
- Case number
- ERA10WA338
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- es Wikipedia article "Accidente del helicóptero de C5N" (page 3972625, revision 175051711), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case ERA10WA338 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: 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); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record ERA10WA338
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): The news channel flew its own helicopter to film news coverage, not a helicopter hired from an operator: a corporate aerial-work flight, general aviation. The article: "C5N became popularly known in its early days for having its own helicopter, allowing it to carry out aerial coverage"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "C5N helicopter accident" and NTSB case ERA10WA338, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.