Re: Three Dead....Another Night Bad Weather Flight Over Dark Terrain
SASless
You say:
"I was not there...thus what I think I would have done is irrelevant. The sad fact is the crew launched and did not survive the flight. Plainly, they got into a situation they could not handle."
I disagree with your first sentence! Sure you were not there, but you have quite rightly commented on other elements of what you would and would not done - eg, launch in the first place. With your experience I think you could have a very valid opinion.
Your last sentence is key: they got into a situation they could not handle. But that's a very generalised comment.
I think it is generally agreed:
That weather was not suitable for a safe VFR operation
That if the job was going to be attempted it should have been with an IFR machine and IR pilot
However, it is indeed important that we learn from these incidents and that means trying to really focus on what specifically caused the accident. It is easy to generalise with very valid comments, eg not VFR should be IFR twin/IR pilot etc. But implementing such changes is (a) costly and (b) takes time. In the meantime, what will save skins is trying to understand what actually caused this helo to crash.
I am sure that amongst the plethora of US EMS ops, VFR singles are on missions every night somewhere in poor VFR conditions. Virtually all are successful, but a tiny % end in a fatal accident. So what was different here? What specific lesson is there to be learnt?
I suspect it comes back to the old issue that one must never, ever lose sight of ground references when flying VFR. That means clinging to them like they're your liferaft alone in the middle of the Atlantic. Always fly defensively - as ground references reduce, descend, and turn to pick up more. If you feel they are reducing dangerously, go still lower and slower, and ultimately land. Almost anywhere.