Well PPRUNE FAN#1 as much as I admire the pilot of the Parks aircraft and would fully support his actions, I would also say that what he was doing would contravene a number of rules here in the UK. The obvious one is his inability to alight in a safe area (without damage to people or property) in the event of an engine failure. With one person hanging on his skid there is a chance that three people could have died if the rescue aircraft had lost an/ the engine! In that case, the pilot took a risk and it worked out fine (considering the circumstances). In defence of the legislators, they have to look at the worst case scenario. Flying Lawyer is a useful person to ask in this case. His arguments to defend fellow pilots in cases against the CAA are fine. But hypothetically, had that aircraft had a single engine failure whilst attempting the rescue and had the person being rescued died underneath said helicopter, and had that persons next of kin retained flying lawyer as there legal advisor (phew, a lot of ands there), then.
What approach would FL have taken in trying to sue the pants off
A. The Pilot fo attempting to rescue people in such a situation
B. The Pilots employer for not supervising the pilot correctly and thus enabling him to think he should carry out the attempted rescue (remember, we are talking hypothetically here!)
C. The regulator for not ensuring that all pilots are aware of there responsibilities in such cases.
I appreciate that there are a few hypothetical points here that may not have applied to the actual potomac rescue but I hope they illustrate my general thrust!
Or would FL have advised his clients that there was no possible case for the pilot to answer because he was trying to save life?
Now at this point I would boringly look through the ANO and ops manual to see what other rules he may have contravened, but I am at home and that is not the point. There may well be occasions when you consider breaking the rules, if it all goes well you may be back home to tea, medals and a hero's welcome, if it goes t*ts up you can bet your bottom dollar/ pound/ euro that your name will be off everybodys christmas card list within seconds.
