The heliport carried out the full scale emergency exercise yesterday night (10 May) to test the capacity of the personnel in handling emergencies and train them with the necessary skills. The exercise simulated the scenario of a tail rotor drive failure after the helicopter has taken off, the accident of which resulted in a forced heavy landing on the mainpad. All responsible parties activated their contingency plans to resolve the crisis.

The helicopter was carrying 2 flight crew members and 2 passengers and encountered a tail rotor drive failure after taking off from the Macau Outer Harbour Heliport. The accident resulted in a forced heavy landing of the aircraft on the main pad; some parts of the aircraft were detached and scattered on the ground. Both passengers suffered from serious injuries. The flight crew were not injured. After the accident, the heliport immediately activated the emergency response procedures including putting the fire-fighting system in the standby mode. The fire services emergency team and the ambulances arrived immediately at the ferry terminal to perform rescue services, evacuate all people, attend to the injured and transport them to the hospital.  

The exercise began at 20:00 yesterday night with the participation of about 100 people and 7 fire fighting vehicles. The process lasted for 1 hour and was deemed smooth.

The East Asia Airlines was the coordinator of the exercise. The participants were the Macao Customs, the Public Security Police Force, the Fire Services, the Health Services, the Marine and Water Bureau, and the Civil Aviation Authority.