BBC TV 28th Oct - a/c crash reconstruction

[Tee]

Monday 28th October
BBC 1 at 22.35
999 programme
Reconstruction of light aircraft crash in Scottish mountains

[Holdposition]

Tee:

Just a quick thanks for the info, would never had known if it wasn't for your post, as these things go thought it was quite a good reconstruction and lessons to be learned all round as per the AAIB report.


cheers

[gasax]

Saw the programme and I have flown in the same area for over 15 years.
They have a lot to thank the FAA for in insisting that ELTs are on all aircraft - otherwise they would certainly have died.
My recollection is that it was a really crap day to be flying - fine in the south but pretty horrid even here in Aberdeen. 40 knot winds over these mountains produce turbulence for thousands of feet above them. Aboyne is a prime gliding site to access the wave lift they cause for just that reason.
The sadness is that flying into icing on a day with very high winds and cumulo granite just isn't necessary.
Most of us dress as though we might have to walk home, but having come from the warmer south they hadn't.

But again we don't fly over these mountains in these conditions.

Still not a bad programme for the GASIL people to shorten and add the appropriate comment.

[Aussie Andy]

I saw it too and thought it was well done.

My main thought was that the forecast must surely have been bad, so suspect root cause was decision making in relation to weather, as has been said above.

Still, mustn't pre-judge - does anyone know if this has already been investifated and written up in AAIB?

[bookworm]

The AAIB report is here (http://www.aaib.dft.gov.uk/bulletin/aug01/gtome.htm). I didn't see the programme, but I'm told by someone who did that there are substantial differences between what was presented and what was in the AAIB report. Any comments?

[Aussie Andy]

He determined that, apart from a few areas of poor weather in Scotland, the forecast conditions were good.

There but for the Grace of God..!

[gasax]

A few areas of poor weather indeed - but only when you look at the UK as a whole. If you're trying to fly through it one local squall is enough to cause serious problems.

I couldn't help but think the AAIB had been very kind. Even the heavy commercial traffic was having to tough it out that day. The usual weather split up here is east to west, nice on one side of the mountains or the other! And frequently nasty over the mountains, so we usually have to go around them or run the big glens - but never in 40 knots of wind - that's close to madness.

[tacpot]

Thanks for early warning Tee. I was able to catch the program and very interesting it was too.

I would have said that the reconstruction and the AAIB reports were fairly close. The reconstruction did not mention two helicopters, nor the positional uncertainty inherent in the ELT-based alerting process, but I suspect the second of these would have been too technical for the audience to have been interested, and the first was not significant.

The vital role of the Nimrod was also not disclosed, something the crews of the Nimrod should rightly be miffed about.

Some valuable lessons for us all there.

My personal observation would have been that had the commander NOT taken an instrument rated Pilot along on the trip, the accident may well have not happened, as the commander would have done an immediate 180 on entering cloud; there would have been no other option.