Let us consider that the pilot may or may not have been familiar with the heliport in this case:
If he was familiar then the limitations of the taxy area should not have come as a surprise and he would have realised that turning left before turning right would put the tail wheel perilously close to the edge.
If he wasn't familiar, then a certain amount of caution would have been prudent and using the rest of the crew to assist would have been professional.
Either way there is no excuse for trashing an aircraft in this way.
But it's a journey and the sad thing is you only learn from experience, so as much as someone can tell you things, you have to go out there and make your own mistakes in order to learn. Emma Watson
- Megan, I think we moved away from that idea in aviation many years ago since it costs a lot in lives and equipment - the whole point of a Safety Management System is that we learn from other people's mistakes and use training, both in the air and on the ground, to prevent accidents like this - it was wholly avoidable.
To err is human - we all know that and acknowledge our own frailty but, while everyone makes mistakes, let's not pretend that crashing a helicopter (because that is what he did) is the same as breaking a glass or bumping another car in the car park (Parisian parking) - this mistake will cost a lot of taxpayers dollars and could easily have been much worse.
The crew f**ked up for whatever reason, in a situation that they really, really shouldn't have done and will doubtless suffer the consequences and wonder why they (collectively and individually) didn't put slightly more effort into a pretty simple task and avoid the ignominy of being 'that crew who tore off the tailwheel while taxying and ended up on youtube'.