London heli crash jan 2013

[BOAC]

Any ideas when we might get the report? It is over a year now and I would have thought this one was fairly straightforward.

[FLY 7]

Also, underlying legal challenges can delay publication. Was this not the case with the Colin McRae AAIB report?

[Cows getting bigger]

BOAC, you've answered your own question. He was flying in crap weather and hit a crane.
All the rest will probably just make interesting reading, especially for the (barrack room) lawyers.

[BOAC]

BOAC, you've answered your own question. - indeed, but I'm not writing the report.

An interim at least on 'serviceability' would be good - or is that not "as straightforward" as it seems?

[SASless]

Legal challenges....before the report is issued?

[puntosaurus]

Well I can assure you that if they are looking into any of those things, then they are doing it by some sort of cunning psychic interrogation method that does not involve any communication with those involved.:zzz:

BTW H. I'm afraid that for Euro-Compliance reasons we are going to have to change your moniker to AerodromeOrOtherOperatingSite. I hope that will not cause you any difficulties.:)

[G0ULI]

Nasty weather conditions, a press on regardless attitude and using a mobile phone in flight can't have helped matters. If using a mobile in a car is so dangerous, how much more distracting is it in a helicopter in intermittent IMC at low level with tall structures all around? An accident looking for somewhere to happen in my opinion. The AAIB special report published in March 2013 gives a considerable amount of detail of events leading up to the crash, certainly enough for inferences to be made.

[rotorspeed]

GOULI

Do you know the pilot was using a mobile phone actually in intermittent IMC with cranes around, as you scathingly say? I suggest you go back and read the report you refer to carefully. I think you might find it says the pilot had used a mobile phone (to text) in flight, but the time of use almost certainly was not at the time when he was in intermittent IMC, if indeed he was. More likely when on autopilot cruising in the sunshine above the fog, I'd suggest. In which case the mobile phone use was hardly dangerous, whereas using one whilst driving, with obstacles and head-on traffic perhaps just 3 meters away, clearly is.

[BOAC]

Cows getting bigger

He was flying in crap weather and hit a crane.


Simples!
No need for an investigation then.

I don't think many pilots would disagree with CGB? Is that not true, then AoooS?some sort of cunning psychic interrogation method- yes, the CAA will be involved:)

[Pittsextra]

Do you know the pilot was using a mobile phone actually in intermittent IMC with cranes around, as you scathingly say? I suggest you go back and read the report you refer to carefully.

Without being silly, in just around a year there have been a bunch of professionally maintained and operated helicopters in accidents driven by professional pilots. Top blokes all of them I'm sure and so on but you can talk these things around and around forever as many of the recent threads seem to prove.

Not that I'm their PR but one wonders if Colin McRae or Mark Weir had shunted in similar circumstances if attitudes would be the same?

[SASless]

I believe he used the word "Psychic".....not "Psycho".:=

[G0ULI]

Rotorspeed
The fact that a mobile phone was being used to exchange text messages while flying has to be a contributory factor in the accident. It is an indication of someone who is prepared to bend the rules, push the limits a bit, and to a certain extent compromise safety.

Since I hold operating licences for operating two way radio equipment in any vehicle (including while driving), ship or aircraft, I feel confident in stating that using a mobile phone to text or speak while flying will lead to a degradation in performance.

The phone may or may not have been in use at the actual moment of impact, but it was a significant factor in this accident in my personal opinion. In the case of my phone, messages repeat every couple of minutes and flash on the screen until positive action is taken to acknowledge them. That could be sufficient distraction to divert a pilot's attention from the view outside for those vital couple of seconds...

It is also significant that many car accidents attributed to mobile phone use also involve the exchange of text messages, rather than people just talking on the phone.

[PPRuNe Towers]

Circular rehashing without new data or a report.

Rob