Rescue chopper down on POW?

[Horatio Leafblower]

I heard a rumour that there was a very hush-hush night time training accident involving a very large, expensive helicopter on Prince of Wales Island in the last few days...

...what goes in the Straits stays in the Straits? :eek:

[Frank Arouet]

Men, (and /or the obligitory woman), in black coats I'd say.

The Parliamentary Press Ball was on last night. Wasn't it? Probably ran out of Lobster.

[Wanderin_dave]

Yeah, very hush-hush. So hush-hush in fact that nobody is talking about it.

Oh, except the ATSB....
Investigation: AO-2013-099 - Collision with terrain involving Bell 412, VH-EMZ, Prince of Wales Island (Torres Strait), Qld, 13 June 2013 (http://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2013/aair/ao-2013-099.aspx)
:ok:

[Sunfish]

That will all buff out.

[VH-XXX]

One could only assume that the duct tape was added post impact :cool:

[Ixixly]

Anyone else get the feeling they tried to make the clearing a bit bigger with their blades? :} How many woods could a wood chucker chuck if a wood chucker had a Bell412...?

[Jabawocky]

Night ops, wood chopping....that must not have been fun. :uhoh:

Poor buggers!

[autoflight]

Is it a write-off?

[DancingDog]

Certainly looks like it.

[Avgas172]

you guys crack me up .....:E

[Tic Toc]

Heard a rumour that AH are putting VH EMZ back on line , as this was a minor incident ie heavy landing :ugh:

[airwolf117]

From what I saw in the hangar, the skids were well bent open due to a heavy landing, but the rest of it actually looked quite good. This incident was kept very quiet, an impressive feat considering its happen in a rural area with a tight aviation community! :D

I've also heard the rumour its being rebuilt....

[cowl flaps]

Wow! Pranged on 13 Jun 2013 and investigation completed and released on 17 Sep 2013.
A world record for ATSB or was it swept under the carpet ?

[tmpffisch]

Wow! Pranged on 13 Jun 2013 and investigation completed and released on 17 Sep 2013.
A world record for ATSB or was it swept under the carpet ?

It was an company lead investigation???

[Sarcs]

tmpffisch: It was an company lead investigation??? The bureau involvement was minimal and scoped to this..

"...Decisions regarding whether to conduct an investigation, and the scope of an investigation, are based on many factors, including the level of safety benefit likely to be obtained from an investigation. For this occurrence, a limited-scope, fact-gathering investigation was conducted in order to produce a short summary report, and allow for greater industry awareness of potential safety issues and possible safety actions..."

Given the contractual obligations of the operator and the fact that this is an EMS operation it was obviously in their best interests to conduct a prompt but thorough investigation, a commendable job indeed!
Operator investigation

The helicopter operator conducted an investigation and determined that:

• The pre-flight briefing was conducted using an uncontrolled and unapproved Standard Operating Procedure.
• The radio altimeter warning alert was not set.
• A combination of task fixation induced loss of situational awareness, a visual illusion effect and spatial disorientation occurred after the helicopter descended through 400 ft which resulted in a high rate of descent and decreasing indicated airspeed.
• The absence of visual aids such as night vision goggles (NVGs) reduced the pilot’s ability to avoid the visual illusion effect and spatial disorientation.
• The high rate of descent and decreasing airspeed is hypothesised to have resulted in the onset of an incipient vortex ring state (VRS) in the final stages of flight.
• Due to task fixation induced loss of situational awareness, the pilot flying did not respond to the first go-around call.
• Due to degraded situational awareness, the training pilot did not assume control of the aircraft with sufficient time and height to effectively recover the aircraft from the incipient VRS it had entered.
Not sure if the Operator was referencing this or it was included by the ATsB but the following link is, in my opinion, essential reading for all those special mission operators/aircrew out there...:D:D:
A selection of articles regarding night operations is collated in the Night Operations edition of the Canadian Directorate of Flight Safety On Target magazine and is available at:
publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2010/forces/D12-14-2010-eng.pdf
Hmm..funny how the Canuck's feature again..:D.bet the ATsB were glad to side-step this one, oh not to mention the bundle of taxpayers hard earned that Beaker managed to save us!:ugh::ugh:

Broken link so..try this one: On Target - Night Ops (http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2010/forces/D12-14-2010-eng.pdf)

Rumour: Apparently (so the rumour goes) the fall guy in this event was once again..."t'was the pilot's fault"...consequently he was summarily dismissed...:{ H'mm notice FF were surprisingly absent in all this..maybe they knew that Senator Fawcett would be all over them otherwise??:E

[DancingDog]

I'm not involved with AH, but I'm pleasantly surprised that the results of the investigation are factual (or at least sound it). Internal investigations are somewhat notorious for blaming everyone and everything except the company, but this one seems unbiased with issues such as the lack of NVGs.

[601]

Internal investigations are somewhat notorious for blaming everyone and everything except the company

I guess it depends on who does the investigation.

[kimwestt]

Hope the green tree huggers don't get to :=see that!!