PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Helicopter crash off the coast of Newfoundland - 18 aboard, March 2009
Old 30th Mar 2009, 02:10
  #258 (permalink)  
PilotJoe
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: St. John's, Nfld, Canada
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Get Home attitude...

The technical aspects of the investigation will show some of the reasons why aircraft and it's gearbox developed this problem, but they are really an aside to the reason for the crash. For 10 minutes and 31 seconds the pilots had a problem that all their training taught them to "Land or Ditch Immediately", but they did not. They were only 45km from land, they were aiming for the parking lot of Cape Spear which was the nearest point of land, and away from the direct route to the airport. To ditch with sufficient rotor RPM is the only way they were going to have some control for landing, but somewhere between 300 asl and the ocean they lost that, the blades were intact with the wreckage, those blades don't hit the water at sufficient rpm to stay intact, as well they did not even "pop the floats", sadly, no matter what the outcome of the investigation for the "cause" of the accident, it will invariably come down to "pilot error". Any of you who fly will know what I am talking about, how many have had a chip light and second guessed it? How many of you have been afraid for your job or reputation etc. when making a go or no go decision. When was the last time your chief pilot or Manager or the company said to you in a briefing, "I don't care what the reasons are, land the machine"! The sea state and weather that day were not bad, what Matt, or Tim, needed to do was put it down immediately, get in the raft and not second guess how serious the problem was...God Speed all of you!
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