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During a thunderstorm in Victoria, Canada a HeliJet Sikorsky S-76 was struck by lightning, dropping thousands of feet before the pilots regained control and landed safely at a nearby airport. The pilots' quick reaction to the strike allowed them to navigate the storm, flying VFR to land with all 12 passengers unharmed.
On Oct. 24, a HeliJet was traveling from Vancouver to Victoria with 12 passengers and two pilots. While flying over Vancouver Island, roughly 30 miles from Victoria Harbour, a passenger told CTV News Vancouver there was a big flash and a bang before the helicopter rolled sideways and dropped from about 4,200 feet to as low as 1,300 feet.
"Suddenly, off to the left of the helicopter, there's a big flash and a bang," Passenger Lecia Stewart said to CTV News. "I see the pilots both look at each other, then the helicopter starts to swoon back and forth, almost like you're in a washing machine."
"We kept dropping down and bouncing around," Stewart said to CTV News. "The two gentlemen in the seat behind me called their wives to say goodbye."
The pilots can be heard on the audio shouting an expletive followed by "decouple, decouple, decouple."
"We're declaring a pan-pan here," one of the pilots told the air traffic controller. "We just descended incredible amounts of altitude. We're still descending, we're at 1,300."
The pilots kept in communication with the controller, who advised them of nearby traffic. The pilots were able to regain some control of the copter. HeliJet President and CEO Daniel Sitnam told CHEK News that the strike occurred about 20 minutes into the flight. Sitnam said that the whole cockpit, including the instrumentation, went black. Sitnam told CTV News there were no other reports of lightning strikes in the area, referring to the incident as a "needle-in-the-haystack scenario." Environmental Canada meteorologist Armel Castellan told CTV News that there were other lightning strikes in the area and that information had been provided to aviators by NavCan, which warned of the potential for lightning. After the strike and initial rapid descent, the pilots were able to regain some control and climb.
"We're just climbing and 2,000 now," the pilots told the controller. "We're level at 2,000 now."
"We just had a lightning strike and we descended a bunch," one pilot told the controller after the event, his voice still sounding shaky.Photos of helicopter damage from lightning strike from CTV News
The pilots chose to land at a heliport in downtown Vancouver, telling the air traffic controller they were flying VFR and headed to the harbor. Despite losing their instruments and dropping nearly 3,000 feet through the clouds, the pilots were able to safely land the aircraft with all passengers unharmed.
"From a lightning strike, losing your instruments and being in cloud at the same time with no reference, we're pretty proud of our crew, proud of the company and we're very, very pleased that everyone is on the ground safe and sound," Sitnam told Times Colonist.
VP of operator at HeliJet Rick Hill told CBC that this was a very rare event and has only happened twice in his 36 years of experience. Hill said there was some damage to the helicopter, including the tail rotor. The aircraft is now grounded and was held at the heliport for examination for a few days before it was towed away for repairs.