Just thought i would throw in my pennies worth.
I do not believe there is any need to show such graphic pictures in public.These pictures have been the topic of discussion in my crew room for the past week or so.Some have viewed them and some haven't.I have not.The main point that has been made by the 'fors' is that it would be an education for potential HLOS and pax to see the results of not keeping one's head down.
I disagree,i believe it can only cause further concern and stress to our pax as they are not trained crewmen and even though they spend a lot of time riding around in the back they are generally not very comfortable with it.Good training with the emphasis on SAFETY should be sufficient as well as a proper grounding in heliborne ops,including crawliing in and out of the aircraft and physically pulling the blades down to demonstrate what can happen.And recurrent training.
And as we are aware even the most experienced crew/ground staff can and do have accidents.This is a fact,we are all capable of having an unfortunate incident through no fault of our own and i for one would not like think that my wife or child could end up seeing photographs of the kind being discussed here,freely available on the internet.It is at the least voyeuristic and at the worse pornographic to publicly display such things.
However if as part of a properly conducted safety course to those who need to study such things,they are presented,with permission from the family,etc then i can see a use for them.At the end of the day it appears that these pictures were probably obtained illeagally and if so then their use is wrong.I hope that whoever did take them is hung out to dry.
What of the family of this poor guy and what of his personal dignity ?
Refering to blade sailing i was shuting down yesterday(a bell) and had given the HLO a thumbs down,to signal that he was to stay away from the arcraft untill the blades had stopped.He stayed clear untill the last few revs and then decided that it was okay to walk forward even though we were giving him frantic hand signals from the cockpit to stay put !!! My little chat with him can not be published here !