Rubbish!
If you are so dense to not be able to process a flashing strobe light, rotating rotor blades, and the position of the other helicopter on a pad you have used for YEARS...then you certainly have a very real problem with cognitive awareness.
There is a hangar building and fuel system for visual reference as well.
The arriving crew had multiple opportunities to figure out the situation.
Yes...I have flown OH-58’s in those conditions and have operated from aprons very similar to the one in question and have spotted aircraft on the MARKED spots.
No matter the departing crew parked the aircraft improperly...the handling pilot of the landing aircraft owns this one!
Originally Posted by
r22butters
If this had been an open ramp at an airport it wouldn't have happened. If the weather hadn't reduced the pilots ability to judge her distance this wouldn't have happened.
If I couldn't tell my distance from another chopper when landing on marked company pads, I'd of done what she did and focused on the markings which are supposed to keep us appart, and crashed too.
If it was just an open ramp at the airport I'd of just set it down anywhere, no harm no foul.
The root cause was one pilot not parking where they should have combined with bad weather and another pilot trusting the safety measures which were in place, not realizing that they weren't.
Sure, she should have just set it down, and is partially to blame, but who can honestly say given the same scenario they would have done it differently?
You're coming home to a familiar company pad, the other chopper is running up, I think its safe to assume that most of us wouldn't even think that that other chopper wasn't where it should be.