Helicopter crash Sunshine Coast

[Time Out]

Helicopter crash on island

February 10, 2004
A HELICOPTER has crashed on the northern tip of Bribie Island off the Sunshine Coast.

A Queensland ambulance service spokesman said the helicopter with two men on board crashed about 9am (AEST).

A spokesman for the Australian Search and Rescue Co-ordination Centre said the helicopter came down in a mangrove area just over 3km south-east of Caloundra.

He said an aircraft had spotted the two men still in the cabin of the downed helicopter, but there was no indication of their condition.

He said a rescue helicopter was on its way to the scene.

source (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,8639532%255E1702,00.html)

Update:

Two injured in crash
By John Sheed
February 10, 2004

TWO men suffered back and leg injuries in a helicopter crash on Bribie Island, north of Brisbane about 9am (AEST) today.

The helicopter, operating from the Caloundra airport, was on a training flight with an instructor and student on board when it crashed into mangroves at the northern tip of the island.

An Ambulance Service paramedic said it appeared the helicopter had dropped from a considerable height into the mudflats of the mangroves.

He said the two men on board, aged in their 30s, were lucky to have survived the crash.

"They were sitting in the passenger capsule of the aircraft which had been destroyed around them," paramedic Lindon Shield said.

The company operating the Robinson 22 helicopter, Chopperline, would not comment on the crash.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority said the helicopter was quite new, having been first registered in Australia last October.

A spokesman for the Australian Search and Rescue Co-ordination Centre (AUSsar) said the helicopter came down in a mangrove area just over 3km south-east of Caloundra.

There was no road access to the area and paramedics were taken to the scene in two rescue helicopters.

The Aussar spokesman said the downed helicopter was largely intact.

"The men have suffered lower back injuries and fractures consistent with a heavy impact," the spokesman said.

After treatment by the paramedics one of the injured men was flown to Nambour Hospital while the other was flown to Princess Alexandra hospital in Brisbane.

A Queensland Ambulance Service spokesman said both men were listed as serious.

The Sunshine Coast is home to several helicopter flight training schools.

In August 2001, entertainer and former Skyhooks front man Graeme "Shirley" Strachan was killed when his helicopter crashed into a cliff while on a training flight from Maroochy Airport.

source (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,8641127%255E1702,00.html)

[Steve76]

"In August 2001, entertainer and former Skyhooks front man Graeme "Shirley" Strachan was killed when his helicopter crashed into a cliff while on a training flight from Maroochy Airport."


????....and what the hell does this have to do with anything.....

[pohm1]

It's not unusual for the press to trot out the old "other recent incidents have included......."

Its good to hear that despite injuries, both aboard will live.

[Time Out]

Steve76 I often omit those sorts of comments at the end of reports when I post them, but I was in a hurry today, and merely copied and pasted the lot.

It is annoying and frequently irrelevant - shows a sort of sensationalist approach by the media that I don't like either.

[Power Up]

The problem with the media is that they have to reiterate all the previous examples of bad incidents to try and exploit the dangers of such things.
ie. helicopter crashes, airline crashes etc...

All this does is banish what confidence the public has in our wonderful machines - but they never compare the number of flights / hours flown compared to the number of incidents - I can imagine that there are more accidents with motor vehicles on the road.

Steve76
I agree - what does it have to do with anything?

I sometimes wonder if it is an anti flying conspiracy:suspect:

[Autorotate]

Power Up - remember that not ALL media are like that. Some of us publicise the good helicopters do every day, or in my case, every two months.

What pisses me off about the mainstream media is they throw in that quote about the Strachan Bell 47 crash which was severe turbulence, absolutely F All to do with what caused this R-22 accident. And they claim its all in the case of good reporting. What a crock of ****e.

Just my two cents worth.

Autorotate.

[headsethair]

Over the Christmas / New Year period in Australia (peak summer holiday season) 100 people were killed in road accidents.

Goodnight.

[slowtyper]

Anyone know who was in the accident?

[Hilico]

What, all hundred of them? Can't say. Car crashes happen so often, they virtually never make the papers.

[MD900 Explorer]

My thoughts go out to those concerned.

(On a lighter note, since celebrities are being mentioned. Shame the ones involved in "I'm a clebrity, get me out of here" wernt involved. What a bunch of jumped up upstarts.)

MD :mad:

[Power Up]

Auto

I agree, not all the media - but as you rightly said:

'the mainstream media'

Which is where most of the paying public here about the industry, unfortunately they do not tend to hear about the constant successes

[Time Out]

Instructor and student injured in chopper crash
Tanya Moore and Glenis Green
11Feb04

PLUNGING into a mangrove swamp may have saved the lives of a Malaysian policeman and his Sunshine Coast flying instructor when their helicopter crashed on the northern tip of Bribie Island yesterday, aviation experts said.

While both men suffered serious injuries and were airlifted to hospitals in Brisbane and Nambour, rescuers said the accident would have been worse if the crash had happened over the sea or hard ground.

"Not many people walk away from a helicopter crash," said Sunshine Coast Energex Rescue Helicopter crewman Col Essex, who was among those who rushed to the scene just after the accident happened about 9am.

The helicopter's pilot and instructor, Bruce Clark, 36, suffered abrasions to his face, bruising, chest and spinal injuries and was taken to Nambour General Hospital before being transferred to Princess Alexandra Hospital yesterday afternoon and was in a stable condition late yesterday.

His student, Syukry Bin Hamdan, aged in his late 20s, sustained spinal injuries and a fractured sternum or ribs, and was airlifted straight to Princess Alexandra Hospital by Queensland Rescue where he was in a serious but stable condition.

"One guy kept on screaming 'I can't feel my legs and I think I have a fractured waist' – that was the student," said Mr Essex.

He said the pilot had a black eye "and blood all over his face".

"Every time he tried to move he was screaming."


Mr Mecham said the helicopter, a Robinson R 22, looked as if it had struck the ground and bounced before coming to rest upright in an area of mangrove swamp with thick mud and a few centimetres of water.

"The pilot did a pretty good job in getting it down in one piece," he said.

The helicopter, operated by Chopperline Australia based at Caloundra Airport, was on a training flight when the accident happened.

Chopperline chief pilot, Tub Matheson said the duo had been practising forced landings in the helicopter which was only three months old.

Mr Matheson said one of the men was able to make a distress call to the office from a mobile phone at 8.47am with just the words "we've had a crash" and he had immediately notified 000.

He said an EPIRB tracking device in the helicopter also went off and rescuers were able to quickly pinpoint the crash site, about 2km south of the Caloundra bar.

Mr Matheson said Chopperline had been training members of the Malaysian Police Force as well as their "Bomba" Fire and Rescue crews since 1993 and currently had six police officers and two Bomba officers in training.

"I've been here 14 years and this is the first time anyone's had a scratch," he said.

Mr Matheson said the helicopter was a write-off.

source (http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,8646900%255E3102,00.html)