Originally Posted by
roscoe1
There is the root cause, which is that the pilot of the moving helicopter hit a stationary machine. No getting around that fact (blades turning or not, that part is kind of like saying "I didn't know if it was loaded and it just went off"). Guns are always loaded and things are always in your way until you know they are not. Then there is the list of mitigating factors, the incorrect parking, the rain, hard to see turning rotors (the strobe should have been a giveaway, cant miss that), the intended departure prior to return of second aircraft all made it so that by being complacent and assuming clearance the pilot guided the aircraft into the other. What if it had been real gusty....still the pilot's fault. Pitch black and power failure of helipad lights....still pilot's fault. There are always safer but perhaps less convenient options that we simply ignore because we are basically sort of lazy. This happened because someone was complacent. That needs to be accepted. It is a real shame they parked the stationary ship where they did and I could see splitting the root cause and blame but one ship was moving and one was not.