Australia tightens rules for helicopter night flying
Australia is tightening up rules for flying helicopters at night following the release of the final report into the August 2011 crash of a
Eurocopter AS355F2 Twin Squirrel helicopter at Lake Eyre in South Australia.
Helicopter air transport operations with passengers at night will be required to have an autopilot fitted or operate with a two-pilot crew.
The helicopter, which was carrying a film crew for Australian broadcaster ABC, crashed, killing the film crew, comprising a reporter and cameraman, and well-known and respected helicopter pilot Gary Ticehurst.
The helicopter was conducting a 30min flight after last light and although there was no low cloud or rain, it was a dark night, according to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
After take-off, the helicopter levelled at 1,500ft (460m) above mean sea level, shortly after which it entered a gentle right turn and began descending. The turn tightened and the descent rate increased, resulting in it hitting the ground at high speed with a bank angle of about 90 degrees. The crew were fatally injured and the helicopter destroyed.
The ATSB determined that before departure, the pilot had selected an incorrect destination on the global positioning system. After initiating the right turn, the pilot probably became spatially disorientated. Contributing factors were the dark night conditions, high pilot workload associated with establishing the helicopter in cruise flight and probably trying to correct the incorrect GPS input, the pilot’s limited night flying and instrument flying experience and the fact the helicopter was not equipped with an autopilot.
The
ATSB identified safety issues with existing regulatory requirements, whereby flights for some types of operations are permitted under visual flight rules in dark night conditions that are effectively the same as instrument meteorological conditions, but without the same level of safety assurance as provided by requirements under instrument flight rules. {Note: Forgot to add that the bureau identified the same issues a decade ago
}
New regulations
being introduced next year will require all air transport flights in helicopters with passengers operating
at night to be equipped with an autopilot or a two-pilot crew. While this extends the range of operations required to have such risk controls,
the ATSB notes it does not address the situation for other helicopter operations, namely those not carrying passengers.