Pilot crashes Hughes 500 into volcanoe

[Capt W E Johns]

And then gets praised. Ref below:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3897558a10,00.html

Anybody here know what sort of performance can be expected in that Hughes 500, 8000' AMSL (plus raised local DA due high temps off the water), with 5 POB?

[ZK-CFB]

Hi

First of all I am not a pilot I just work around the choppers that fly around Ruapehu. Bit of background for you and that is the guys on board that Helicopter had been picked up from the Southern side of the Crater Lake where they were checking monitoring equipment on the lake. I have been on one of these flights myself.

We often use the Hughes 500 up there to do that work basically the Aircraft is run on Vapour to get it up there and down again to the Ski area or Chateau Airstrip for Refueling. Keith Mackenzie of Mountain Air is a reguler sight on runs up above the mountain for sightseeing.

I also should point out that three of the persons on board I work with. They were lucky very lucky, the pilot Bruce made a split second decison to go for the only possible place he could ditch. Lucky in two ways as that lake has in recent months been subject of large waves from ice falls from the Glacier to the left of the crash scene. Those waves created that small beach he hit but also could have had the potential to was the survivors off that ledge. Funny enough just last month I stood above the accident scene and can say with some certainty that it if he had not hit that ledge they would be dead.

The lake temperature last time I heard was about 26c certainly not the 50c reported, but also that summit is subject to some very strange and unpredictable windflows! Last March whilst I was up at the Dome Shelter above the lake a Hughes 500 was due to lift us off but due to sudden increase in wind it was extremly difficult to take off! Took a few minutes for the pilot to stabilise before dropping like a stone into the valley below. I got this incident on video and was lucky not to get run over by the machine on that ridge.

The helicopters used in the rescue were AS350 B2, Pete Masters machine is stripped down for Heavy lifting work mostly on the skifield! Lucky for them Petes got a heavy workload on the mountain with the new Chairlift at Turoa. The Lion Foundation Helicopter has recently been upgraded to a B2 and I think this was its first time hovering above the 1630m Helicopter pads we have on the Skifields.

I hope that the machine can be recovered before either the lake decideds to burp or another large ice fall buries it deep into the Volcanic Lake forever.

That article speculates on pilot error but windshear can not be ruled out or mechanical failure. Knowing how reporters work Pete Masters was probably misqouted and certainly that Vulcanologist over exhagerated.

As you can imagine I will be following this incident with great interest.

Colin

[Chocks Away]

Top stats thanks Colin.
Would be keen to see that Vid you took, if email-able?
This story runs on the front page of todays New Zealand Herald too.

[ZK-CFB]

The video I have is 36.2mb so what I am trying to sort out is hosting it on my own webpage. Must note that this is NOT the helicopter involved in the crash.

I have learned some more information about the crash but morally and ethically it would be unwise to allow it in the public arena until after the inquiry has been carried out.

Suffice to say the Helicopter was working within its design limitations, As we all know caution on what the media say or has said for inaccuracies of the report.

The one thing is the pilot saved the lives of those 3 men and 1 woman passengers on that flight through his actions after the crash.