Originally Posted by
DOUBLE BOGEY
Classic!!! I remember flying solo back to Wallop on my Army Pilots Course and seeing a gently steaming heap on the "Ponds" sloppy ground. A whistling chicken leg lying in repose with its blades neatly stacked in a line next to it. The pilot making the long walk back to the Line Office because no-one had noticed his whoopsie!
Ahhh those were the days.
Ok so maybe it’s not getting worse as the thread title suggests - if this isn’t just a statistical anomaly, perhaps the question is why isn’t it getting better?
Newer technology, supposedly improved authority oversight of things like SMS, auditing and a focus on safety and quality - this should be making the accident and incident rates trend down.
Is the downturn and the lack of jobs making pilots more hungry to take/do jobs when they shouldn’t? What about the effect on maintenance of tighter budgets - I’ve been told by a maintainer that a particular bit of kit is expensive so they didn’t want to replace it unless the defect was terminal and asked us to keep flying with clearly degraded equipment.
Or perhaps it’s training that’s taking the hit - people have a can do attitude and take minimal training to get the job done, save money and protect their incomes...
Or it’s just a patch of bad luck ...
The high profile accidents we’ve had recently doesn’t do much for the image of safe helicopter transport.... that reflects on all of us in the industry.
BG.