The commander of the Northern Maritime Police, Rui Silva Lampreia, informed journalists that after the successful recovery of debris, the search in the river area where the aircraft crashed on Friday has been concluded.
At the time of the accident, which occurred in Samodães, Lamego municipality (Viseu), there were five military personnel from the GNR’s Emergency Protection and Rescue Unit (UEPC) on board, who lost their lives, and the pilot, who was the only survivor.
This morning, the helicopter’s tail was removed from the riverbed and transported by a vessel with a crane to the Lamego river dock, and from there to the hangar of the Office for the Prevention and Investigation of Aircraft Accidents and Railway Accidents (GPIAAF) at Viseu aerodrome.
“We retrieved various materials belonging to the aircraft, including the tail. We found that the tail is practically intact, with the rotor, and therefore we have this element which will be important for the examinations to be carried out,” emphasized Silva Lampreia, who coordinated the rescue and search operation in the Douro.
Another important piece, namely the navigation computer the size of a tablet, remained unrecovered. Despite its importance for the examinations, the commander believes that the material retrieved from the riverbed will be sufficient to determine the causes of this tragic accident.
Due to the characteristics of this small computer and the irregular morphology and dense vegetation of the riverbed, it would have been very difficult to find, and it may have been completely destroyed.
Silva Lampreia concluded that all possible elements were recovered from the river. The helicopter’s impact on the river was of strong violence, causing the aircraft to break into two parts. On Saturday, part of the cabin had already been recovered, and today the tail was removed.
Boat traffic for tourism and recreation has returned to normal in that area of the river between Lamego and Peso da Régua (Vila Real).
On Saturday, the GPIAAF, responsible for investigating the helicopter crash, said they had already heard from the pilot and witnesses and concluded “the essential part of the field work phase.” They intend to publish an informative note by the end of today, detailing initial findings and the path forward for the investigation.
The crashed helicopter, an AS350 – Écureuil model, was operated by HTA Helicopters, based in Loulé, Algarve, and the accident occurred when it was returning to the Armamar Air Resources Center.
