MD-500 crash near Minsk
MD Helicopters MD 500 · Presumably a control error
From UMMB · Minsk to UMMB · Minsk
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA10WA415
- 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
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- Unknown
- 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
MD Helicopters MD 500
- Aircraft type
- MD Helicopters MD-500
- 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
- D-HDWM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- 1
- Route
- From UMMB · MinskTo UMMB · Minsk
- 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
- Not recorded
- 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
- Not recorded
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Estimated position: Minsk, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
The MD-500 air crash near Minsk was an event at Borovaya airfield near Minsk on 8 August 2010. An MD-500 helicopter crashed during a sporting competition. The helicopter's pilot, 74-year-old Günter Zimmer, was killed.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Russian Wikipedia article “Катастрофа MD-500 под Минском” (revision 150750263, 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 August 8, 2010, at 1249 coordinated universal time (1549 local time), a Hughes 369, German registration D-HDWM, was destroyed when it impacted terrain at Borovaya Airfield (UMMB), near Minsk, Belarus. The German pilot was fatally injured. The helicopter was operating during an international helicopter competition under Belarus flight regulations.
The investigation is under the jurisdiction of the government of Belarus. Further information may be obtained from:
Republic of Belarus Ministry of Transport and Communications 4, Aerodromnaya Str., 220065, Minsk, Belarus
Tel: (375 17) 222 53 98
This report is for informational purposes and only contains information released by the government of Belarus.
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Russian Wikipedia article: Катастрофа MD-500 под Минском
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 150750263 · 2025-12-21 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q4055750
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record ERA10WA415
- Event ID
- 20100811X21901
- Case number
- ERA10WA415
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- ru Wikipedia article "Катастрофа MD-500 под Минском" (page 2636924, revision 150750263), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case ERA10WA415 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
- Map position
- Wikipedia: place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata 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 ERA10WA415
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): A privately flown helicopter in a sporting competition: sport flying, general aviation. The article: "An MD-500 helicopter crashed during a sporting competition."
- 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 "MD-500 crash near Minsk" and NTSB case ERA10WA415, matched by the same aircraft maker and place 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.