Sorry again folks for the gruesome video. It was my target to provocate.
But what is so shocking? The pictures? The direct and visual confrontation with an accident initiated by a bad prepared crew? The small frontier between live and death in the business? A wrong splitsecond decision? This nightmares happens, happens direct in front of us.
I assume we have round about 6000-8000 hoist or shorthaul rescues in Europe. We have any year 5-10 accidents or heavy incidents with Lady Luck in Europe only in this small part of the helicopterworld.
Samples: Single pilot lift off in a short haul AS 350 in Switzerland- chrashing into death, Class "D" release Sea King in UK, rescuer falls from longline in Austria, on a cable car evacuation a UH-1 in Germany cutted the hoist cable with rescuer online.
One of the problems is: any country still holds his own rules and any operator his own SOPs (if available!).
As for the crew on this clip I think they should have had a better flyaway option briefed and used their escape route rather than cutting the cable
I know operators in Europe they have never heard anything about "escape routes". Preflight briefing for the special operation unknown. There are countries in Europe with no need to certify "Human Cargo" ops. The HHO (only hoist) section JAR-OPS 3 Amd 2 is not in law in some european countries. There are no certification rules for human cargo in the most countries.
JAA some years ago: The JAR-OPS 4 will solve the human cargo problem! JAR-OPS 4, i believe we will never seen a JAR-OPS 4 in Europe! JAA -> negative report!
And we have military and paramilitary units with procedures and equipment 30 years old. We have young police pilots with a minimum of sling load experience ( it's not part of their normal business) but performing short hauls.