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Helicopter pilot reports a near collision with a vehicle during air taxi via taxiway. A quick pull up avoids contact; with the vehicle passing five feet below. The driver stated that she did not see or hear the helicopter and was not familiar with the airport markings for taxiways and was not familiar with any rules of movement of vehicles while on the airport grounds.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1048400 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201211 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1201-1800 |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Eurocopter AS 350/355/EC130 - Astar/Twinstar/Ecureuil |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 135 |
| Flight Phase | Taxi |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Captain Pilot Flying Single Pilot |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Instrument |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 60 Flight Crew Total 7000 Flight Crew Type 600 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Conflict Ground Conflict Critical Ground Event / Encounter Vehicle |
| Miss Distance | Horizontal 5 Vertical 5 |
Narrative:
I was requested by maintenance to move the helicopter from its parking spot to the hangar parking pad. After preflighting the aircraft and obtaining tail clearance to hover taxi I proceeded to hover taxi the aircraft south on the parallel taxiway and turned west on the designated taxiway to the maintenance parking pads. After turning west I noticed a ford F-150 pick up truck to my front and left moving left to right. I continued almost where the vehicle would cross the taxiway and determined that the vehicle was not going [to] stop. I was hovering at about 5 feet. I performed a quick deceleration and the aircraft climbed about 3 to 4 feet and stopped. I then looked through the chin bubble and saw the vehicle pass beneath me. The vehicle stopped at a maintenance hangar located at the end of the row of hangars and the driver got out and went inside. I then parked the aircraft on the maintenance pad; shutdown the aircraft and went inside the avionics shop to determine why the driver did not give way to me. The driver stated the she didn't see or hear me and seemed amused to the fact that she had not seen or heard me. The driver also stated she was not familiar with the airport markings for taxiways and was not familiar with any rules of movement of vehicles while on the airport grounds.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: Helicopter pilot reports a near collision with a vehicle during air taxi via taxiway. A quick pull up avoids contact; with the vehicle passing five feet below. The driver stated that she did not see or hear the helicopter and was not familiar with the airport markings for taxiways and was not familiar with any rules of movement of vehicles while on the airport grounds.
Narrative: I was requested by Maintenance to move the helicopter from its parking spot to the hangar parking pad. After preflighting the aircraft and obtaining tail clearance to hover taxi I proceeded to hover taxi the aircraft south on the parallel taxiway and turned west on the designated taxiway to the maintenance parking pads. After turning west I noticed a Ford F-150 pick up truck to my front and left moving left to right. I continued almost where the vehicle would cross the taxiway and determined that the vehicle was not going [to] stop. I was hovering at about 5 feet. I performed a quick deceleration and the aircraft climbed about 3 to 4 feet and stopped. I then looked through the chin bubble and saw the vehicle pass beneath me. The vehicle stopped at a maintenance hangar located at the end of the row of hangars and the driver got out and went inside. I then parked the aircraft on the maintenance pad; shutdown the aircraft and went inside the avionics shop to determine why the driver did not give way to me. The driver stated the she didn't see or hear me and seemed amused to the fact that she had not seen or heard me. The driver also stated she was not familiar with the airport markings for taxiways and was not familiar with any rules of movement of vehicles while on the airport grounds.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.