i hardly think its appropriate to give out information on the Australian crew.
on a subject from the last page about the fuels tanks taking the life rafts with them. the fuel tanks will, and i believe in this case did happen, break away from the aircraft. the life raft compartment is not part of that break away section. With regard to the need for better floatation devices? well, i cant comment on the reason for not inflating, but i can tell you that there is a modification which has been around for some time called the Sea State 6 Mod. 2 extra floats fitted to the sponsons at the undercarriage mounts. UK SAR aircraft have them, as do many others in europe, but most are inhibbited waiting for something. dont know what though.
my personal opinion as a S92 type rated engineer? well, there has been about 1000 posts berating sikorsky and anyone else that can think of for the cause of this crash. while most of you guys are pilots and i understand your reluctance to do so, why cant you accept that the cause of the CRASH could just have been that the pilots didnt follow the RFM and LAND IMMEDIATLY. the failure of the oil system or the failure of the tail rotor, was only the initiation of the problem. infact does it not say in the last report that they dont know if the bolts on the oil filter bowl broke before or after the crash? they said there was signs of cracking, but didnt know when final failure occured. monitoring of the oil pressure and temperature, for those non 92 people is displayed on the EICAS screen in front of the pilot. its obvious when the pressure drops below limits as the box changes colour and the line goes from straight to having a big dip in it at the pressure read out. it also displays a numeric pressure readout, so whoever said before that you wouldnt notice a change from 5 psi to 0 psi, well you would, there is no needle to clutter things up. if either the input manifold pressure switch or the last jet pressure switch is tripped, a yellow "MGB OIL PRES" caption will appear. if both are tripped a Red "MGB OIL PRES" caption, a master caution will illuminate and a "GEARBOX PRESSURE" aural warning will sound. so there was no way to miss these things, as someone else intimated towards.
Also, if you are going to ignore the RFM and keep trying for land, knowing your gearbox could be on the way out 30 minute run dry or not, would you fly it at 130kts ??? or at 800ft???? a fall from 800ft, with no forward motion is still going to hurt, A LOT. ive spoken with s92 pilots on the matter including one who has survived a tail rotor failure of the s92. he said "30-40ft above the sea, and crawled in!" thats what the cougar guys should have done. i dont want to speak ill of the dead and they did pay with thier lives, but is this or is this not, the reason for the outcome in this case? thats not to say that lessons cant be learned, but lets stay focused.
i bet a lot of people on this thread were surprised to hear that the rotors were still turning at impact!!!!
now awaiting the backlash from angry pilots!!!
Last edited by you want what??; 13th Jul 2009 at 22:06.