An investigation into the crash of a German Tiger attack helicopter in Mali has concluded that a Airbus maintenance crew had made errors.
By Alan Lebeda [GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2], via Wikimedia Commons
The crew had set the main rotorblades’ airflow angle wrongly while the helicopter was still in Germany. On the day of the fatal flight, the rotorcraft’s autopilot had determined incorrectly that the manual override had been engaged and switches off. This cause the main rotors to disintegrate three seconds later as the aircraft suddenly tilt forward after the autopilot disengages.