Helicopter crash passengers did not wear seatbelts

The helicopter drifted and got stuck in trees during a night time take-off

At least four of the five passengers injured in a helicopter crash in north Wales were not wearing seatbelts, a report has found.

Racehorse owner Dai Walters and trainer Sam Thomas were among those on board when the helicopter came down on 1 November 2022.

It crashed at Nantclwyd Lodge, near Llanelidan, Denbighshire, and sustained “catastrophic damage” during a night take-off.

The accident was caused by the aircraft drifting and getting stuck in trees, an investigation has revealed.

Mr Walters, the former owner of Ffos Las racecourse in Carmarthenshire, was seriously injured, while the other four passengers had minor injuries.

An Air Accidents Investigation Branch investigation found the accident resulted from "the unintended rearward transition of the helicopter into a stand of trees during a planned vertical departure at night from an unlit field landing site".

The helicopter flew from the owner’s private landing site in Lisvane, Cardiff, at 08:30 GMT and arrived at the shooting lodge in Llanelidan just before 09:30.

The return flight was scheduled to depart at 16:30 GMT, but passengers did not take their seats until approximately 17:15.

At least four of the five passengers had not fastened their seatbelt.

Mr Walters and a second person were taken to Glan Clwyd hospital following the incident and Mr Walters was later transferred to intensive care.

The report said he was sitting in the right rear cabin seat and "the other passengers had been thrown from their seats during the accident sequence and some, if not all, had ended up on top of him".

Four of the passengers were able to get out of the helicopter with help from onlookers, but "the fifth was lying unconscious at the bottom of the cabin".

Mr Walters was "manually extracted from the helicopter… in significant medical distress, and given CPR”, but did not fully regain consciousness and was in hospital for several months.

Racehorse owner Dai Walters was the most seriously injured of the five passengers

One passenger said the reason for not wearing their seatbelt was that the dim lighting in the rear cabin made it difficult to locate “the correct belts with the necessary attachments”.

Another passenger said "they did not fasten their seatbelt because others had not been wearing theirs on the morning flight”.

The report found the pilot “had not delivered a passenger safety brief for either flight” and had not confirmed that all passengers had fastened their seatbelts prior to the departure.

The pilot said he remembered "seeing the passengers rearranging their seatbelts after sitting down” but did not confirm they had securely fastened them.

The investigation thought it likely that, had all passengers been secured by their seat harnesses, the level of injuries sustained could have been less severe.

The helicopter crashed at Nantclwyd Lodge, near Llanelidan, Denbighshire

It added visual cues available to the pilot were inadequate. It was dark, with overcast cloud and little lighting other than that from the shooting lodge’s windows.

"The pilot was not using a night vision device and the portable Helicopter Landing Site lighting system had not been deployed,” it said.

The helicopter was also above the maximum take-off weight limit when it took off and distraction and time pressure led to the pilot not completing auditable weight and balance calculations, the report stated.

The report concluded that “opportunities were missed” to predict and plan for delays and the pilot was focussed on “delivering the expected service to the clients”.

The operator said it had "taken specific safety action to remind pilots that, irrespective of a passenger’s previous flying experience or status, safety briefings and a check of seatbelt/ harness security must be carried out for every flight".