Agusta-Bell 47G-3B-1 G-BFEJ at Eldwick.
Prior to this incident, what became the passenger of this helicopter when it would crash had flown on a number of flights as a passenger prior to him buying it. 0n Wednesday, 18th April 1984 he bought the aircraft and it was then due to be flown away from Luton airfield, where it was located, to Elstree. It had been refuelled at Luton prior to departure. The new owner flew as a passenger. They took off from Luton at 14.24hrs then landed at Hatfield a short time later. They then took off again and landed at Elstree at 15.00hrs. At 16.00hrs the helicopter then took off from Elstree to fly to Leeds-Bradford airfield but the visibility must have been poor because the pilot had to fly to visual flight rules and not in cloud / on instruments. At 19.10hrs the pilot contacted flying control at Leeds-Bradford to request assistance with navigation to locate the airfield. The AAIB report on the incident suggests some descrepancy around what then happened. The pilot later reported to flying control by telephone that he had made a precautionary landing at 19.13hrs. West Yorkshire Police stated that they were notified of an accident at 20.25hrs. It appears to have been somewhat more than a precautionary landing. The helicopter had run out of fuel in the air, the engine stopped and the helicopter then auto-rotated into the ground at Eldwick. It crashed into a sloping field with the tail first but swung around and was damaged. There were several other similiar accidents involving light helicopters running out of fuel in the air where inaccurate fuel gauges were suspected.
On paper this aircraft was registered to Copley Farms Ltd, of Babraham, Cambridgeshire. They were the last registered owner and registered it on 5th June 1981. The AAIB report to the crash on 18th April 1984 specifically stated that it had just been bought by the passenger when it crashed so it seems highly likely that he never registered it in his name after the crash at Eldwick.
Pilot - Mr Adrian Keith Horne.
Passenger - Mr Gordon Michael Springwell.