Móstoles helicopter accident

The Móstoles helicopter accident occurred on 1 December 2005 outside the Móstoles bullring (Madrid) when a helicopter that had just taken off from the bullring plunged to the ground. Six people were on board, among them the president of the Partido Popular, Mariano Rajoy, and the president of the Community of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre. There were no fatalities and only two passengers suffered minor injuries.

The helicopter rose to a height of 8 metres and, once past the bullring's stands, entered a rapid descent, struck the outer wall of the bullring and finally crashed into the ground. The helicopter was destroyed, but it did not catch fire and the cabin remained practically intact. All the passengers remained conscious and were able to evacuate the helicopter on their own feet.

The accident was investigated by the Civil Aviation Accident and Incident Investigation Commission (CIAIAC), which concluded that the probable cause of the accident was loss of tail rotor effectiveness, which caused loss of control of the helicopter and its fall. Contributing to the accident were the takeoff in a confined area, excess weight and the pilot's lack of preparation.

Accident

At around 09:30 (CET) on 1 December 2005 the pilot arrived at Cuatro Vientos Aerodrome to carry out a routine flight with a police officer from the Community of Madrid's Special Citizen Security Brigades (BESCAM) service, who informed him that on that day he would have to transport civilian dignitaries. At 10:23 the helicopter took off heading for Móstoles, landing in its bullring ten minutes later. A few minutes later it took off from the arena to rehearse the dignitaries' flight it was going to carry out later, flew a circuit to Parque Finca Liana and at around 11:30 returned to the bullring.

At 12:15 the helicopter's engines were started again in the Móstoles bullring. Two minutes later the takeoff began with six people on board: the president of the Partido Popular, Mariano Rajoy, the president of the Community of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, the mayor of Móstoles, Esteban Parro, the Antena 3 cameraman Fernando Maté, the pilot, and the co-pilot, a BESCAM police officer.

The helicopter rose to a height of 8 metres. When it reached the stands area it began to turn to the right and, once past the bullring's stands, it veered uncontrollably to the right, entered a rapid descent, collided with the outer wall of the bullring, then struck the ground with its skids and finally overturned onto the

left side, where it came to rest a few metres from the Extremadura road (A-5).

The helicopter was destroyed when the blades, main rotor, tail cone and tail rotor and landing skids broke, but it did not catch fire and the cabin remained practically intact. All the passengers remained conscious and evacuated the helicopter with the help of personnel who were in the surrounding area. Pedro Ruiz, driver of the PP bus, went so far as to fetch a fire extinguisher in case the aircraft caught fire, but it was not necessary to use it.

The journalists who were following the event saw the accident from the bullring and from a bus outside. The accident was recorded on video by several media outlets from outside the helicopter, and the Antena 3 cameraman recorded the accident from inside. These recordings were later used by the CIAIAC investigators to determine the circumstances of the accident.