Canadian Helicopters – Bell 407 Helicopter – Water Bucket Inadvertent Release

2018-08-01
C-FAVT, a Bell 407 helicopter operated by Canadian Helicopters, was conducting forest fire control operations and was on approach to release a load of water from the suspended Bambi bucket, when the long-line was inadvertently released from the helicopter belly hook.
The operator’s maintenance suspected the mechanical emergency release mechanism was not fully retracted.
Electrical wires at the disconnect plug were re-routed to offload pressure on the release cable.