You know, you're right. I suggest you take some meaningful action. To do otherwise would be to shirk your civic duty as a taxpayer and responsible citizen. Why dither around on a message board with a bunch of people who don't appreciate your genius. Yeah, how can it possibly be important what conditions were like at 0200 that night? You've got a single snapshot of a bunch of idling vehicles surrounded by hot lamps! You've hiked there! You could have landed your Cessna there!
Because, dammit, you want some action. Some heads should roll!
Why, you have made a determination of PILOT ERROR! That SOB should have his wings pulled. I'm impressed by this rapid determination of causal factor. While I'm not real familiar with RAF procedures, I suspect crab also is breathless with the alacrity of this finding and may be forwarding your data on to the UK for further study. Normally in the hidebound services in the U.S. of A. it takes convening a mishap board with a minimum of command-level (and usually higher) oversight. Authorization at the flag level for access to the FDR & CVR, a reconstruction of the accident usually with the technical assistance of the NTSB, blood & urine draws from all the crew members, sworn & witnessed statements from the crew members and as many witnesses as you can get your hands on, numerous site visits, simulator reconstructions, and a number of other details I'd have to dig into a manual to remember. It also usually takes (at a bare minimum) weeks for a causal factor determination to be made. And here you've done it with a quick mid-day stroll and the rest from the comfort of your own home with the help of a basic article from HeliProps!
The only fly in the ointment I see here is that determination of PILOT ERROR also requires one thing that we don't have. AN ACCIDENT OR INCIDENT!
But hey, what do I know? Write an actual letter to the following address, and sign it, with your name.
USCG AIR STATION
SFO International Airport
Building 1020
San Francisco, CA 94128
Attn: Commanding Officer
To personalize it, you should start your salutation with: "Dear CDR Campbell,"
Further to this, you should send advance copies to:
RADM Joseph Servidio of the 11th Coast Guard District in Alameda as well as your Congressman, whoever that may be. You don't want these damned aviators protecting their own. You want some damned accountability.
Be certain to advise them that based upon your vast experience as a radar technician (pay grade E-5) in the USAF in the early 1970s and your FAA Private Pilot Certificate Airplane Single-Engine Land without Instrument Rating that you feel qualified to discuss the allocation, manning, maintenance, salvage, deployment, and operation of SRR rotary-wing assets in the maritime and littoral environment, night-aided or otherwise. Tell them of your experience flying on NVGs, spotting wires and estimating angle from the horizontal of off-airport terrain with a degree of precision of + / - 3º. You're a prodigy!
Further advise them that you know precisely how their cockpits are kitted out (which is interesting, because I am retired from that service and even I don't know precisely how their cockpits are kitted out these days, but I can assure you that all the kit you think they have I had nothing of the kind in that aircraft for reasons I'm not going to go into, though I had a number of things you haven't mentioned).
I'm sure you'll find them receptive to your insights. In fact, I'd not be surprised if they call you into SFO for breakfast and the morning OPS briefing. Also be sure to tell them how many airframes they ought to have at SFO. Of course, that would require you to know how many are there now, which is a fact I suspect is not in your possession.
If you're not willing to do this, then you are precisely what most of us believe you to be, and you should go back under your bridge.
Last edited by Um... lifting...; 21st Nov 2014 at 21:04.