Why do these accidents keep happening? Because they have not yet replaced the human pilot with a robot with perfect judgment who doesn't make mistakes. I know some of you don't like to hear this, but as long as we fallible humans are flying these machines, we are going to make mistakes. And crash.
In the EMS sector, you all screech that twin-engine, two-pilot, IFR-capable helicopters will give us "safety." ...And then the Maryland State Police in their twin-engine, two-pilot, IFR-capable helicopter crashes and kills nearly everyone onboard. The peanut gallery rises up in high dudgeon and cries in unison, "Why/how do these accidents keep happening?!"
Do you really not know? Are ye that dense?
You can legislate and regulate and do this-and-that, but at the end of the day, it's the one guy moving the little sticks around and he'd better be good, yeah?
In talking with other old-timers, we often pause to wonder how many times we came "this close" to crashing and never knew it. Or even, came "this close" to crashing and knew it! Times when the main or tail rotor might have been just inches from striking something, but we were too busy concentrating on other things to notice but nothing happened. Were/are we really that good? We'd certainly like to think so!
And then to counterpoint that we look at accidents occuring to high-time or highly-experienced guys where we go, "How did that ever happen to HIM?!" Answer: We got lucky; he didn't. His "this close" became a smack, or something.
I flew offshore for a long time. I know that I've come within an RCH of snagging my tail on more than one occasion. And even now in my current job, going in and out of some of the confined-area sites we use requires the utmost concentration and skill. A little backward or sideward drift here and it'd be Bettystown all over again. So far, I haven't hit anything. But I know I'm capable of it!
It's us pilots who are the major problem and cause of most crashes, not equipment failure. As soon as we can produce a pilot with perfect judgment and skill, then we'll see accident rates decline. Until then, we'll all wring our hands in angst over why a two-pilot crew flies a Dauphin into the ground on an ILS, why an S-76 pilot decides to land in a teeny, tiny parking lot that Stevie Wonder could've told him was too small and hits a light pole fixture, or why an Astar driver bangs his tail on a oil platform heliport fence.
Hey, sometimes we make friggin' mistakes.