Originally Posted by
birmingham
HC, as you predicted the next fatal incident was indeed an s92 sadly killing an Irish Coastguard crew who were only there to rescue others. At this very early stage no information is available as to what was the cause. I am sure that unless evidence of technical failure is found the S92s will keep flying. If it transpires there was a technical reason and a grounding of S92s as well as 225s is necessary it will be seriously testing for the oil and gas people. For everyone's sake let's hope they can establish the facts quickly. Another sad reminder, if it were needed, of how dangerous helicopter ops can still be.
Much as I like to score points with SAS on the S92 vs 225, I do hope this latest isn't a sudden catastrophic failure as that would seriously scupper N Sea ops. But it does show the dangers of having pretty much a one-horse town.
Obviously we have no idea yet but if it turns out to be CFIT during an instrument approach in bad weather, it does raise the question of whether one sort of fatal accident is worse than another. I'm thinking that, e.g. the Sumburgh L2 accident could have happened to both an L2 and an S92, but not to a 225. What if this accident could not feasibly have happened to a 225?
From the pilots' point of view, we hate the idea of a sudden rotor detachment as it's out of our control. Even though the probability of a CFIT is perhaps greater, we dismiss that as being something that couldn't happen to us because we are competent. And yet it still does.
From the passengers' point of view, I doubt that such a distinction is made since either scenario is out of their control.