Good question Bell_ringer, I don't want to speculate on the how and why but an important question needs to be asked. What the heck is an enthusiastic but when it comes to commercial helicopter ops fairly mediocre pilot doing up there at night.
Replenishment and support flights to cabins and huts in the alps are the bread and butter of commercial operators in this part of the world. However, conducted by highly experienced pilots with thousands of hours and more importantly years of flying experience and local knowledge.
Besides the legality of all this, these folks would laugh you off when asked to conduct such an operation in a Robinson helicopter at night. What made Mr. Arch think he can pull it off?......we'll never know.
This is a tragedy, but hopefully it can serve as a warning to other retired Red Bull sponsored adrenaline junkies that think they are god's gift to helicopter aviation. This is a very unforgiving line of work, if you contiguously keep stretching the boundaries it will bite you!
Last edited by imuney; 12th Sep 2016 at 11:55.