The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently called for recording devices to be used in experimental test flights, in response to the July 6, 2016, in-flight accident of an experimental research and development Bell 525 helicopter.
NTSB asked nonprofit organization Flight Test Safety Committee to develop and issue guidance for the use of recording devices.
NTSB also requested Bell Helicopter Textron to provide lessons learned from the 2016 accident.
The Bell 525 accident occurred while the crew was performing a series of tests at increasing airspeeds preparing for type certification. The helicopter began to vibrate and the main rotor blades hit the tail boom and severed it.
The helicopter then crashed, killing both pilots and destroying the aircraft.
NTSB believes the cause of the crash was likely severe vibration that caused the crew the inability to maintain sufficient rotor-rotation speed.
“Cockpit audio is now being recorded by an onboard CVFDR [combination cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder], and communications to and from the ground monitoring station are recorded by the CVFDR and the telemetry system during all flights,” NTSB said. “Cockpit video is also being recorded by the instrumentation system and archived at the ground station.”