Helicopter reported crashed in Ireland

[Davey Emcee]

Helicopter reported to have crashed in County Clare Ireland.
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/ireland/mhkfidgbidgb/

[MD900 Explorer]

My condolencies to the family of the deceased. RIP.

MD :sad:

[Sailor Vee]

Aircraft down is EI-IHL, carrying out gas pipeline inspections.
Just back from delivering the survivor to Galway Hospital, hopefully things look OK for him.

No speculation please until the AAIB have done their investigation, by all means draw your own conclusions. but not on here.

[victor papa]

Was it a Squirrel?

[jetstream7]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6896049.stm

At the time of posting, an inaccurate picture of type.

[hobie]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6896049.stm

At the time of posting, an inaccurate picture of type.

Why do they (bbc) do that .......... is it pure $$$$$ lazeyness or just stupidity .... :(

[fluffy5]

If it was IHL then it could be irish helicopters, pdg's irish company. it was a b1 squirrel. my sympathies to the families.

[206Fan]

Yup it was a B1 AS350!

http://flyinginireland.com/register/aircraft/EI-IHL.jpg

My condolencies to the family of the deceased. RIP.

[victor papa]

Always a sad moment in this business of ours.
Condolonces to the family. Hope the 2nd guy is ok!!!

[nibog]

RIP, very sad. Talked to EIIHL regularly. So used to him calling me, knew where he was going before he even asked.
Condolences to the family of the deceased.
Speedy recovery to the injured.

[Heliport]

Ex. N518R and G-BWFY

[Brilliant Stuff]

Condolences to his family and friends.

[Bravo 99]

Rip to the crew member who died and condolances to all the family and friends

hopefully a speedy recovery to the other crew member


Sincerely

Bravo 99
&
Bluebird one crew

[Deeko01]

Condolences to the deceased and hope the other crewman is ok, worried about who it is, very sad.

Used to fly in that aircraft when it was with PDG nicknamed "BOWFEY"

:(:(

[hobie]

Condolences to the deceased and hope the other crewman is ok, worried about who it is, very sad.

Used to fly in that aircraft when it was with PDG nicknamed "BOWFEY"

:(:(

Passenger Fred Balcombe (69), from Townparks, Skerries, Co Dublin, was pronounced dead at the scene. The pilot, who was named as John Todd, survived the impact with serious head injuries and was taken to Galway University Hospital

from the 'Independent' ......

[davaar lad]

You're Grand. Not been in touch for years. How are you? Get in touch would love to get an update.

hope the high heels are more comfortable now you have had the op.

xx

SK

[hobie]

AAIU Preliminary Report issued 22/8/07 .......

http://www.aaiu.ie/AAIUviewitem.asp?id=9604&lang=ENG&loc=1652

[Creaser]

"Due to the increased hazards associated with low-level Aerial Work operations, the investigation makes the following Interim Safety Recommendation:

Safety Recommendation SR No. 13 of 2007:
The Irish Aviation Authority review the suitability of single-engine helicopters operating on Aerial Work Permits engaged in low-level operations.
The Investigation is ongoing and a Final Report will be published in due course."

What was the typical height flow for this task?
Rather than dictate twins for low level work, would an increase in min height enable the continuation of the type of work this single engine heli was doing?

Creaser


Creaser

[rotorspeed]

flungdung

What, a twin, especially operating within Cat A performance, would make little difference? Surely you can't really believe that!

[helimutt]

flungdung, can you tell me some of the figures of a twin squirrel avoid curve then please? :hmm:

[hobie]

some earlier views on PPRuNe here .....

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=210263

[JimL]

Helimutt,

Unless otherwise stated, the HV diagram - contained in the Flight Manual - applies to all flight manoeuvres except those which are within a Category A procedure or are accepted as being within the bounds of PC1 (as indicated by the latest amendment to JAR-OPS 3). That is why some regulations permit exposure in take-off and landing for operations in PC2 (take-off and landing for twin engine helicopters certificated in Category A).

The HV diagram (if there is only one in the FM) is based upon a set of flight conditions expressed in Parts 27/29 and, as such, is a blunt tool (as an analogy consider a WAT curve that did not take into consideration temperature or altitude and gave one take-off mass for ISA at 7,000ft).

In Europe, penetration into the HV diagram is accepted (an alleviation contained in JAR-OPS 3.005(c)) for a limited period in the take-off and landing phases (because the HV diagram is a limitation of Part 29 helicopters); the limited period is a take-off or landing event -likely to be measured in seconds.

It will be obvious that penetration into the HV diagram, for other than take-off or landing, is likely to place the twin engine helicopter in a situation only marginally better than for a single. It is this marginal benefit that will have to be assessed by the Irish Authority in addressing the recommendation of the Accident Investigators.

Clearly operations such as pipeline inspection could be flown in PC2; however, it is the overall principle that has to be addressed.

At present, the level of protection against commercial activity is provided for: third parties - by the Rules of The Air contained in regulations (in compliance with ICAO Annex 2); passengers - by compliance with the regulation for Commercial Air Transport; and crew members - by Aerial Work regulations. (Obviously some of these are also cumulative.)

If one area of aerial work were to be singled out for special treatment then all areas of aerial work would have to be examined - closely followed by examination of the subdivisions of each task. This for a regulator is the nightmare scenario because it would place the responsibility for each aspect of safe operation with them and not the operator. This would also run counter to contemporary thinking which is to place the responsibility for safer operations with the operator (on the basis that they have the operational experience and would be best placed to run the Flight Safety Program).

This is a heavy recommendation and one which will cause sleepless nights for the Irish Authority - it is to be hoped that it resulted from consultation between the Investigator and Authority and wasn't a unilateral declaration.

It is likely that the Authority will defer any further examination of a change of regulation until after seeing the result of deliberations on Aerial Work by EASA. Any short term policy decision could quite quickly be overturned by a diktat from Europe.

Jim

[mickjoebill]

The Investigation is of the opinion that modification
of the basic seats in accordance with this Service Letter should be Mandatory for
Operators to provide a greater level of protection of the occupants. Although the seats
were in conformity with FAR 27.561 (Amendment 10) at the time of the accident, there is
no obligation for the AS350 series of helicopters to meet the more stringent current
requirements as set out in the EASA specification CS-27 (Amendment 2) 17 November
2008.



Hear hear!
There are two options for improving seats
1/ Instal new energy absorbing seats (remove flight controls and electrical harness to install reinforced floor, will take 2 approved engineers three weeks)
2/ Strengthen existing seats will take one engineer 2 days

Given that both crew members were ejected there is no reference n the report if crew were wearing helmets and if they would have helped reduce injury or death.

Mickjoebill