Should We Wear Helmets
The thread on crashworthy seats, and in particular Nick's observation about wearing helmets in cars prompts me to ask the question.
Anyone thats been in the business for any length of time will know of people, or of accidents, where a helmet, or lack of, determined the outcome for the individual/s.
The usual cause is the result of a blade entering the cockpit, some thing our fixed wing brothers don't have to worry about. A couple of interesting accidents I recall were a 412 in Alaska where a pitch link to one blade came adrift while in the cruise at 10,000 feet. Horrendous vibration set in which caused both pilots (only persons on board) to be bounced so violently in their seats that their heads went through the overhead greenhouse windows and were being belted against the door pillar. They put their ability to retain sufficient control and get safely to the ground down to the fact that they were wearing helmets. Another was a 76 accident where the captain banged his head on the broom closet. He exited the cockpit and helped the crash crew extricate the copilot who was pinned in his seat. 45 minutes after the accident he dropped dead as a result of his seemingly innoxious bump.
As a comment Nick, a Oz brain surgeon some years ago was campaigning for car occupants to wear helmets because of the injuries and deaths he saw in his business which would have been alieviated.