Very heavy autorotation landing resulted in skids being ripped off and helicopter coming to rest on its starboard side. Owner reported in his own Facebook post that this was after the “newly fitted Lycoming Engine had just 15 minutes of flight time and lost power on its second flight approx 10 minutes after take off”, and happened at a reported 400ft agl. A later report quotes the South African CAA as saying the issue “was solely caused by a Spider Fuel Distributor that came apart in flight after engineers had hand fitted four pipes and failed to use proper equipment to tighten the flexible pipes with metal endings”.
Pilot was owner Prem Balram and suffered minor injuries while passenger Jerome Sumdath was admitted to the ICU with spinal injuries
