Helicopter missing after Chelsea v Liverpool match

[Helinut]

This is a general comment about how to avoid these sorts of problems in general, and not a comment about the specifics of Steve's very sad accident.

For me, night is a different ball game from day (onshore). I try to think in terms of always having an escape route (and the necessary means to use it - adequate fuel for diversions in my experience is often a problem, especially for light helis full of pax or mission equipment). I get myself to think about that as part of my planning and if there is a decent possibility of not getting the punter to his destination (or the job done), I raise that with the customer and/or the ops department. The point is to try and get it in everyone's mind that we may need to not go or divert.

You have to focus on YOUR safety. If necessary be prepared to tell the pax or operator to stick it. It seems to me that in your average career in typical light heli ops, you have to expect to have a major argument about such things more than once. As Sean says, the first priority for YOU is to walk back into the office.

Which does not mean I always get it right, indeed I have got it wrong on a number of occasions: then lady luck plays a part.

I suspect that the most hazardous pressonitis comes from inside the pilot. If you review some of the sadly awfully long list of similar incidents, a significant number involved pilots "who ran the company" or had in other ways a real personal interest in "getting the job done", no matter what.

After a bit of practice, I don't have too much of a problem with turning down/diverting an ordinary charter job. They just aren't important enough to seriously risk my life for. The one that I think I need to be much more careful of, is the classic "saving a life" task in emergency service flying.

Of course, it is not always easy or comfortable to do the right thing. Somewhere on here VeeAny recounts a recent case where he was let go by a private owner when he diverted to a suitable alternate, rather than continuing to the private site destination in unsuitable conditions with failed kit.

A while ago I was being interviewed for what could have been for me a really great job. Corporate pilot for an outfit whose main activity was of really great personal interest to me - I have a lifelong passion for it. The job involved all sorts of elements: interesting flying, a good aircraft. However, in my conversation with the main man, we had cause to discuss bad weather decision making in various ways. It became clear to me that he was in the habit of pressurising his existing pilot to fly. He compared that pilot unfavorably with a PPL he knew. After much heart searching, I declined the job offer.

A short while later, the much praised PPL killed himself and his pax in a bad weather accident.