Helicopter near-miss highlights dangers of kite-fighting craze

INVESTIGATORS have warned that a trend for kite-fighting – in which competitors engage the toys in mid-air duels at up to five times the legal altitude limit – is putting aircraft at risk, after a helicopter was hit.

The pilot was carrying four passengers on a sightseeing flight over Kent when he saw the kite and later discovered that if it had hit just inches lower it would have caused him to lose control.

When it was hit, the helicopter had been flying at around 700ft – more than three times the limit of 200ft that the kites are allowed to fly at.

Kite-fighting, which has been banned in parts of India and Pakistan after it was linked to the deaths of several children, involves fliers trying to cut the line of their rivals and down their toy, sometimes using glass-coated lines.

An official inquiry by the Air Accidents Investigation Board revealed that the line of the kite that hit the Bell 206 Jetranger III had been laced with an abrasive substance. The 45-year-old pilot, an experienced flier, told the AAIB that he was flying to Canterbury and back, and as he was passing over the coast at around 700ft, he noticed a kite very close by and was forced to take “avoiding action”.

He only realised the extent of the damage when he landed back at Manston airport, and said afterwards: “I discovered the damage to the rotors, windscreen and tail fin. The marks to the top of the fin showed that if it had made contact inches lower, it would have hit the tail rotor.

“That would have put me in trouble, as loss of tail-rotor control is a serious emergency in a helicopter.”

The inquiry noted that the kite-flying activity had not been relayed to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), so no warning had been issued to other air traffic in the area.

The incident, the second collision between a kite and an aircraft in a year, has led to calls for tougher action to be taken against kite fliers who break the 200ft maximum height flying rule. Kite fighting, which features in Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner and the film adaptation of the same name set in Afghanistan, is popular across South Asia.

Two children in Delhi died last year when their throats were cut by a kite line as they watched the sport.

The craze is spreading in Britain, with kite-flying enthusiasts holding competitions on beaches. An investigation established that the kite involved in the helicopter incident probably came from Sandwich Bay beach where enthusiasts regularly fly their kites.

A CAA spokesman said: “This was the first time we had received a report relating to fighting kites and we take all reports seriously.”

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