Originally Posted by
Carbon Bootprint
Omniflight operated Westland 30 service to JFK for PanAm in the mid-80s. No record of any mishaps
AFAIK, however.
Oh? Okay, not with the Westland, but they did have a fatal accident involving one of their Bell 222 pax at Pan Am's 60th Street Heliport in Manhattan NYCf. I was there that day, just a lowly ramp guy at the time. It was about as horrible an experience as one can have.
At the time, the two 222 pilots would stay in the cockpit during the passenger loading and unloading. Since it was an "in-house" shuttle which was included in the price of the airline ticket, Omniflight and Pan Am considered it a FAR Part 91 operation. Thus, passenger briefings were non-existent.
For this particular flight the lead Pan Am Customer Service Representative walked a group of six people out to load on the left side of the running helicopter. One of them had a piece of luggage that was too large to fit in the cabin. The CSR took the piece and then told him he'd get it back at JFK.
Only two problems: 1) The passenger didn't speak very good English. And, what with the noise of the running 222, even if he did it would have been a confusing situation. 2) The passenger had a large amount of cash in what he thought was his "carry-on" bag. (When a cabin attendant takes your carry-on bag, it's usually because it's too big; what usually happens is they tag it and put it downstairs with the rest of the luggage. You get it back at baggage claim.)
The CSR got them all in, and then went around the nose of the 222 to put the bag in the baggage compartment, which is on the right. As she did, the passenger must have remembered the money in his carry-on. He got out of the helicopter and ducked under the tailboom just aft of the sponsons. But just as he was doing that, the CSR had closed the baggage compartment and now was walking back around the front of the ship. (Timing, right?) Seeing nobody, the man came back under the tailboom again. We figure that the first time, he'd felt the heat of the two engines. Second time, he walked right under the tailboom further aft, and right smack into the tail rotor. Not a pretty sight. His wife was onboard and I got the job of escorting her into the terminal.
Afterward, we all had a big meeting up in the top floor of the Pan Am Building, presided over by the president of the airline himself. All of the management types were congratulating themselves that this was a "one in a million" accident that couldn't have been prevented. Sure it was.
"We did everything humanly possible to prevent this." Even I knew better, and said so. Yeah, Mr. Big Mouth even back then. I was not popular in that meeting.
After that, Pan Am/Omniflight instituted pre-boarding briefings, with big signs in multiple languages in the terminal waiting area. One pilot had to be outside of the a/c during rotors-turning loading and unloading.
My lesson? If you leave them to their own devices, unattended passengers *will* walk around the back of the helicopter, possibly right into the tail rotor, guaranteed. So my first choice is to shut down for loading/unloading. Failing that, I get out.