P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }A:link { } Hey all,
please don´t take it personal, if I try to look after other, than mechanical possibility for this accident. Nothing against the crew – RIP – but even the best have a limit – and that night, it might have been exceeded. I don´t say, it was so – but it might have been or contributed....
I lately spent a lot of time in different simulators while completing my MCC, made there mistakes, saw very experienced pilots make mistakes and had the chance to see from behind, how long timers got under stress and missed vital informations. We also covered a lot of accidents and incidents – also EC135 related – which showed, that even with two flight-crew in the cockpit, mistakes occurred which ended up in costly repairs and could have led to an accident.
Luckily we we operate with two pilots at night – but you have still work together, to get home safely again.
„Floatsarmed“ brought up a very interesting point in his post about nightflying down under (
http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/528...ml#post8185576)
So a question – how far were the police-crew integrated in the flight. Were they able to assist the pilot, i.e. with checklists, did they have an basic understanding of the aircraft including warning lights and cautions? Could they switch radio-channels (not tactical radios)?
Or was the pilot just on his own – responsible for flying, navigation, communication with air traffic? Everything at night with a tactical background for the helicopter – not just straight an level flight?
And even with two up front, a perfect servicable aircraft can crash at night :-(
http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/451...th-2011-a.html
report (in german)
http://www.bfu-web.de/DE/Publikation...ublicationFile
What I´m talking about is situational awareness – when the going gets rough or you have a malfunction or a false operation (by mistake, i.e. switching of the autopilot and SAS OFF by pressing the wrong button – and assuming it´s an aircraft fault – wondering what the hell is going on – trying to identify the „fault“ on the clocks – while all you have to do, is press the right button....or turn the throttle on the collective by mistake and get an MANUAL – indication – you´re sure will be busy sorting the problem out)
I personal have over 800 hrs with NVG – and there were great nights and nights, where I had to fight to keep the bird at the right position and nights, where the operator had to work more with his joystick cause hover OGE just was n´t possible (for me that night).
There are times, where we have to remember aviate – navigate – communicate – that is first fly the aircraft and only start to address problems, when you´re flying safe (even with autorotations – get a stable one, if you have the height and then sort things out – chasing speed and Nr will spoil the whole procedure)
And these three vital things – they are ahead of any task you have to carry out.
Let the robber get away – you might catch him the next time – but you never will, if you crash!
I´m sure this pilot was busy trying to aviate – so no wonder there was no mayday-call – the question is, what happened before? I know we have to wait a long time, before we get informations about the remains – until then, every-time you recognize, that you are busy within the cockpit – don´t forget to aviate – for many many happy landings!