alouette,
my dear, let's us cool down, we are shocked by this tragedy.
It's impssible to shut down all ground work in an helicopter flying area. What will you do in case of construction works? Is the feasibility of hitting the cable (seems to be clear that the kettle hit at first the cable, never heard of such a sad bullseye) greater than to chrash with the whole ship in a house or a car or... or.. on the ground in case of a technical malfunction? If we think so we have to evacuate the complete route + safety area of any helicopter or aircraft. It's often impossible not to overfly humans with slingloads. If we stop this operations because of this reasons we have to stop all street traffic, because we all know accidents with cars suddenly hitting houses or humans. Evacuate a complete safety strip around all streets!
May be mechanics or the pilots have failed, there are humans. May be the cargo hook failed. Only metal! How many car drivers failing evering day? How many people have to die therefore every day?
I know this area very good, i would never say it's difficult or risky on a alldays operation, hauling concrete, to operate here. If the kettle missed the cable 5m nobody would talk about. God, i wished the dammned kettle have gone a few seconds before and is resting now for the the next 1000 years in the glacier.
And not to forget, salute to my austrian rescue friends, within 45 minutes 14 helicopters were on scene, supplied 8 heavy injured survivors and evacuated more than 100 persons sitting in the blocked cable gondolas by HEC within a short time. And evacuating a gondola isn't a game!
Last edited by tecpilot; 6th Sep 2005 at 07:54.