Heliport,
I cannot speak on behalf of the CAA, just give my personal view.
You asked:
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when the new Rule 5 comes in 'saving life' of anyone outside the aircraft won't be a defence to breaking Rule 5. eg To rescue someone whose life is in immediate danger.
What's the thinking behind that?
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If an aircraft crew are dedicated to a particular task, such as SAR or HEMS, then within the UK they are granted exemptions from the "3rd Party Risk" Rule, (5 (1)(b)) to attend the incident and do what is necessary. This can be contained to appropriate numbers of a/c and pilots etc with full knowledge of the trainng given and a/c types used.
To extend that in law to ALL pilots would be unrealistic and unreasonable to innocent 3rd parties whose helo's might not have the performance margins appropriate at the time or whose pilots were not trained and tested to the same level. Who decides if it appropriate to land with risk to 3rd parties? Should it be a pilot who THINKS someone is in trouble? What happens if he gets it all wrong and it turns out that the person wasn't in trouble anyway? Difficult to decide, if not impossible.
Better I suggest to have a basic Rule that protects 3rd parties from unnecessary risk, exempt those from it who need to be exempted (SAR and HEMS on scene) and, in the (very rare) event that a pilot finds himself having to decide whether or not he puts innocent people at risk by attempting to save someone else's life, that he considers theat risk, uses considered judgement and then argues that as a mitgigating factor; than one that allows a total 'free for all' to allow absolutely any pilot at all to use that as justification for his actions in landing, regardless of his a/c type, his training, his licence qualification, experience, conditions of day/night, the nature of the (congested) landing area, and the numbers of people at risk if he gets it wrong....
I know not all will agree but what would this forum be like if they did?
You asked for a reason and that would be mine. That is NOT a CAA view.
Thanks for responding, and sorry about the clumsy way I asked the question.
It's understood that all views posted in these forums are personal views not the views of the companies/organisations we work for.
Heliport