I have both owned and commercially flown helicopters. I have also worked on offshore oil rigs for many years. From time to time some industry operators run safety oriented seminars and training courses, usually presented by specialist companies.
One of the recurring facts to emerge from most of these seminars is how people's "perception" can and does vary from what is actually being evaluated, and how it can and does lead to disaster. Simply put, what we sometimes conclude as being a fact, may be what we are expecting it to be, rather than what it actually is.
This "perception" is more likely to occur with things that we are very familiar with and have used or done many times before. It is an unconscious reaction that happens automatically, more so if there are other factors that are demanding our immediate attention.
In this case we have a 16,000-hour pilot that is obviously skilled, probably well trained and definitely familiar with her surroundings and normal procedures. Something that she has probably done hundreds, if not thousands of times previously.
It is nothing to do with the weather, or the other helicopter. I am sure that she would have been aware of the parked helicopter, just as she was aware of the weather conditions. She may have been focusing on the weather, but the other helicopter was "just there", as it probably had been many times before. Her perception of it would not have led her to even consider that it may have been parked in the wrong place, or that it could possibly be a hazard.
It is one of the traits of being a human being. We are not machines that can be programmed, no matter how well trained we may be.
Last edited by Old Farang; 12th Mar 2018 at 11:22.
Reason: correct typo