Report on Alaska EC crash

[GeorgeMandes]

Bumped lever may have caused 2008 chopper crash: Aviation Industry | adn.com (http://www.adn.com/2010/02/25/1157414/bumped-lever-may-have-caused-2008.html)

[Hedge36]

Poor kid's going to wrestle with that for a long, long time.

[Benjamin James]

He shouldn't have too as it wasn't his fault. AFAIK he does not have a heli license and was simply a pax on board. It was the pilot's responsibility to stow bags to ensure none of the aircraft controls could be interfered with.

Harsh but true, pilot's need to keep vigilant.

[Hedge36]

Oh, I agree - he really shouldn't have to. But as with the young lady who found herself the sole survivor if the Maryland State Patrol accident, you know it's going to mess with his head for a very long time.

[BoeingMEL]

..but how tragic that we are still losing airframes and souls (f/wing and rotary) following unintentional interference/restriction of flight controls. Very sad, totally avoidable. bm

[Heli-Ice]

Might be a good idea by Eurocopter to move the lever to a better place in the cockpit? I believe that this is not the first time an AS350 goes down because of inadvertent interference with the fuel control lever.

[GeorgeMandes]

Teen's family blames company for helicopter crash: Aviation Industry | adn.com (http://www.adn.com/2010/03/03/1165793/ntsb-blames-chopper-crash-on-lever.html)

[Yellow & Blue Baron]

Pls read the following link KFQD 750 (http://www.kfqd.com/node/5445) relating to a fatal incident which apparently ocurred because of the lack of a safety guard.

Do you think ERA are liable? Apparently similar incidents have happened? What are your views about floor mounted control levers which are in nearby access to passengers - what's the solution?

[Hell Man]

Is this the metal plate to the left of the fuel control lever? Is that the part which was missing?

[Gordy]

ERA not liable...**** happens...get over it.

On a more serious note....I have flown Astars for many hours, (albeit a few years ago now)....the FFCL guide is notched...it takes two separate movements to take it from the "flight gate" to the "emergency" position... Personally I do not agree with the findings.

[FH1100 Pilot]

Gordy, I think it's entirely possible that the kid did it. Perhaps he had his knapsack in his lap. Or maybe it was between his feet (no duals were installed). Maybe he picked it up during the takeoff sequence to get something...a camera?...out. And then maybe he set the knapsack back down between the seats. And maybe it was heavy enough to push the EFCL toward the pilot and out of the gate. It was right after takeoff and that pilot surely would have had his hands full dealing with *that* scenario.

The kid's statements seem to bear this out. Why else would he tell his mother that he "caused" the crash?

I haven't flown any Astars, but I've flown with enough people who do dumb stuff with their personal belongings. If you allow your front-seat pax to have purses, small bags, cameras, bottled water, etc., then you have to be extra-vigilant they don't put them someplace inappropriate. I've had people put things under my collective in flight. And in the 206 you know how little space there is between the pole and the pan with the collective in the full down position. The thought of having an engine failure and not being able to put the pitch down is the stuff of nightmares.

The fact that the kid was not authorized to be on the flight is totally beside the point. It's a red herring. He was onboard. Whether or not he had "permission" is irrelevant to the accident. It might very well have been one of the other passengers who did the exact same thing.

On the floor between the seats was probably the easiest and most convenient place for Eurocopter to put the three levers when they designed the dang thing. Is it unreasonable to ask that they would have run through the various scenarios?

1) A passenger in the left-front seat has a heavy handbag of some sort and inadvertently sets it down between the seats in flight. Will it move one of the levers?

[maxtork]

I seem to recall another Astar accident many years ago where the pilot had a high side governor failure. He tried to manipulate the ECL to keep from overspeeding and ended up pulling the engine back too far (off if memory serves me correct). I don't see this as a hard mistake to make if you consider you have a choice to either raise collective or reduce the throttle....your hand can't be in two places at once. Once again the floor mounted ECL is less than ideal.

While I don't really agree with the company being at fault or liable I sure think the design could/should be better. A better design here could save lives.

Max