Originally Posted by
G-SASY
I take your point Nubian and agree with your conclusion. I just make the point that causing the rotors to impact the water first to reduce risk to those attempting to leave the helicopter is not without precedent or logic. I own/fly a B4 equipped with similar pop-out floats. If you have the luxury of a gentle landing, flaring and settling on the surface upright with floats deployed, fine. But Q does not seem to have had this option. The video shows a controlled crash away from the ship into the sea tail first and on its side, which may have been the best outcome possible in the circumstances. The floats are held by just one bolt front and back, and are fragile. I holed one float just by it abrading against the step when stowed in the hangar. If the floats had been deployed before the heli hit the water at speed, they would probably have ruptured. See the size of the splash in the video? So the best achievable outcome may have been landing on its side away from the ship without the floats deployed, then deploying the floats to prevent it sinking. This is when the aircraft became fully inverted of course. I haven't spoken to Q since the crash and so like everybody, is trying to make the best from the available information, and hopefully learn from it.
As an owner and operator of a Squirrel variant with floats, you should be more familiar with the Flight Manual Supplement for Emergency Flotation Gear. All Squirrels and the EC-130 have a similar set of limitations and emergency procedures, which include a max IAS of 135kts inflated, a maximum altitude of 6,600ft, a mandatory requirement for the floats to be armed when overwater below 400ft and recommended maximum inflation speed of 80kts in an emergency. Your B4 emergency procedures are on 9-17-3, to help you check. (Most of us with experience would recommend ignoring the instruction on 9-17-4 to apply the rotor brake after touch down, however!)
Nothing whatsoever in the AS350/EC-130 manuals about rolling into the water after ditching, nothing at all about gentle landings on the water, just a note to 'avoid ramming of the nose of the floats on touch-down'.
I still believe that there was little or no control of this accident after the cover impacted the blades and an opportunity to inflate the floats was missed. Crash, yes; controlled, no. To hold a press conference tending to self promotion is not what most helicopter pilots would be comfortable with.