Creamer,
"The resulting enquiry will probably suggest changes to the standard operating procedures. Police SOPs, I believe, are quite liberal even over built up areas. I can understand that for serious incidents anything goes".
Could you please explain why you believe this? Or, better still, why not have a look through the 270 odd pages of the CAP612 and be more specific? Most of us now work under the NPAS Ops Manual which is about three times the size. I can assure you that "Anything" does not go for serious incidents - simply a matter of "Priority" over other traffic - the aircraft Captain is still responsible for the conduct of the flight and it is his/her licence that will be taken if it all goes wrong - there's no claiming "it wasn't me" when you are flying a helicopter painted in high conspicuity colours and have "POLICE" in big letters down the side - everybody knows it was "you". We get OPC'd, LPC'd and line checked as much as anybody else does.
"In the case of a transit or lesser events then defensive flying has to come into play. Its not like your PPL(H) flying or regular military flying. Sadly mechanical failures don't respect any of this"
Why are you assuming that we don't fly defensively anyway? Do you not think that we and our crews all want to go home in one piece at the end of the shift? Has it escaped your attention that UK police ops are all twin engined, IFR capable machines and not piston singles?
I don't yet know what caused this aircraft to fall out of the sky. I have some facts, I have some ideas and some experience to base them on. The only thing I'm certain of is that a very experienced pilot lost the fight with gravity. Like everyone else I want to know why it happened but, unlike the Walts, Trolls, armchair experts and Journos skulking around this thread, it's because I want the ammunition/information I need to keep my crew and I safe as we go about our job - not to sell a few more papers or be able to say "See, I told you so". Today is my first day off since the accident. I have been doing the same job the crew of SP99 were doing when they met their fate and flown some 16 hours whilst doing it. As soon as the professionals at the AAIB have something to tell me I will be glad to hear it - then I can deal with it, learn from it and reassure the crew that our aircraft is still safe to fly and persuade the wife that she doesn't have to up the insurance.
"FAA QHI 3000 Hours Helicopters. 10000 Total".
UK ATPL(H) 8700 Hours Helicopters, 3600 EC135 in the Police Role, 45 hours Chipmunk. (Those in the know will understand).
Last edited by Fortyodd2; 5th Dec 2013 at 09:53.