PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Pasadena Police - two OH-58s make contact
Old 11th Mar 2018, 22:19
  #69 (permalink)  
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Nubian - that accident could occur anywhere when one pilot lands too close to another aircraft, regardless of what marks are on the ground.

How many accidents have been caused when pilots got their aircraft too close to other aircraft, hangars, lights, wires etc etc etc? And then who was at fault, the person who built the hangar????

Yes, the pad at Passadena has been remodelled but another pilot could still show a lack of judgement by landing too close to a helo that isn't parked in the right place (or even one that was)

You can address design of a helipad, address local procedures and rebrief people, you can add comms systems, you can change everything to try and make sure that particular accident can't ever happen again - right up to the point where a pilot makes a misjudgment/mistake/error - then who will you blame?

If you want to go into the minutiae of why she made that error then you might be far closer to preventing similar accidents - the design of the helicopter windscreens and wipers, stop and go lights on the dispersal to give landing clearance, what safety seminars she had been to, what her mental condition was (family problems or similar causing distraction from the job) - the list is endless.

There will have been many, many factors that could be considered contributory but only one as the main cause - landing the aircraft too close (for whatever reason you choose to pick) to the other one - that's it, pure and simple.

If the second aircraft hadn't been there at all and she had tried to land on the normal square but drifted left and hit the fuel tanks, would you blame the installation of the fuel tanks or poor piloting?

really not sure why you think 'British arrogance' is a factor or is it my fault she crashed?
crab@SAAvn.co.uk is offline