Rotorcraft Helo down in the Gulf
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Rotorcraft Helo down in the Gulf
Bad news:
source
LAFAYETTE — The pilot missing since his Rotorcraft Leasing helicopter went down early Saturday in the Gulf was close enough to shore to make routine preparations for landing, the company’s general manager said.
“He didn’t land,” said Gerry Golden of Rotorcraft Leasing in Broussard.
A Bell 206L1 owned by Rotorcraft disappeared after the pilot made a mayday call at 9:40 a.m. Saturday.
A Coast Guard helicopter crew took off from Houston to search. The crew found a debris field of helicopter wreckage at about noon. A crew aboard a vessel based at Sabine, Texas, also searched for the pilot.
Four helicopters from Petroleum Helicopters Inc. and an offshore supply vessel assisted in the search. Golden said the helicopter was about 10 miles south of Cameron. Searchers didn’t find the pilot Saturday.
Golden didn’t release the name of the pilot but said he isn’t a resident of the Lafayette area.
The pilot was returning to Cameron from what Golden called an “offshore location.”
The pilot is known to have switched to a local advisory radio frequency, which routinely happens
5 to 7 minutes before landing, Golden said.
Golden said he doesn’t know why the helicopter went down.
“Weather shouldn’t have been a factor,” he said. “It was sunny with light winds.”
“He didn’t land,” said Gerry Golden of Rotorcraft Leasing in Broussard.
A Bell 206L1 owned by Rotorcraft disappeared after the pilot made a mayday call at 9:40 a.m. Saturday.
A Coast Guard helicopter crew took off from Houston to search. The crew found a debris field of helicopter wreckage at about noon. A crew aboard a vessel based at Sabine, Texas, also searched for the pilot.
Four helicopters from Petroleum Helicopters Inc. and an offshore supply vessel assisted in the search. Golden said the helicopter was about 10 miles south of Cameron. Searchers didn’t find the pilot Saturday.
Golden didn’t release the name of the pilot but said he isn’t a resident of the Lafayette area.
The pilot was returning to Cameron from what Golden called an “offshore location.”
The pilot is known to have switched to a local advisory radio frequency, which routinely happens
5 to 7 minutes before landing, Golden said.
Golden said he doesn’t know why the helicopter went down.
“Weather shouldn’t have been a factor,” he said. “It was sunny with light winds.”
Maybe we should start a thread...."This week's crash of a Jetranger in the Gulf of Mexico". This is becoming an all together too frequent event....combine these accidents with EMS JetRanger night flight during inclement weather crashes and we could have a very busy thread. I guess the other topic that would tie into this would be Bell 407 crashes in the Gulf....Lord knows there have been a bunch of those too.
Am I becoming cynical here?
This article appeared after the ERA S-76 Crash.....
Helicopter Crash in Gulf of Mexico a Tragic Reminder of
Long Delays in Improving Safety
Death of 10 Underscores Need for New Technologies to Protect Pilots and Passengers
Washington, D.C. – Tuesday’s tragic helicopter crash spotlights the dangerous conditions in which helicopter pilots work and also the long-overdue necessity to give these workers the advanced technologies they desperately need, according to Edward Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department (TTD), which represents 35 AFL-CIO transportation unions.
"Our hearts go out to the victims of this crash and their families," Wytkind said.
Even though offshore oil and natural gas exploration now extends up to 200 miles into the Gulf of Mexico, the helicopter pilots who provide service to these offshore oil rigs lose radio contact and critical weather information when they go beyond 50 miles from shore. This poses grave dangers to the passengers and crew of the approximately 7,500 helicopter flights which occur daily in the Gulf. Additionally, Coast Guard rescue capabilities in the Gulf remain limited.
"We must not tolerate such deadly working conditions. How many more tragic deaths must we grieve before we do something to protect helicopter pilots and their passengers?," Wytkind asked.
The TTD’s Executive Committee unanimously approved a policy statement March 7 demanding government action to improve the safety of Gulf helicopter operations, citing a widespread acknowledgment by government and industry that a problem exists. Yet little progress has been made in establishing better communications and surveillance and implementing weather observation equipment. For example, last year Congress failed to appropriate funds for new radio technologies and weather information.
"Helicopter pilots in the Gulf of Mexico have some of the most dangerous jobs in all of transportation. They work under tremendous pressure and fly in some of the world’s most challenging conditions,"said Butch Grafton, president of the Professional Helicopter Pilots Association, a council of the TTD- affiliated Office of Professional Employees International Union. "It’s long past time that we stop ignoring the needs of these courageous workers
Am I becoming cynical here?
This article appeared after the ERA S-76 Crash.....
Helicopter Crash in Gulf of Mexico a Tragic Reminder of
Long Delays in Improving Safety
Death of 10 Underscores Need for New Technologies to Protect Pilots and Passengers
Washington, D.C. – Tuesday’s tragic helicopter crash spotlights the dangerous conditions in which helicopter pilots work and also the long-overdue necessity to give these workers the advanced technologies they desperately need, according to Edward Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department (TTD), which represents 35 AFL-CIO transportation unions.
"Our hearts go out to the victims of this crash and their families," Wytkind said.
Even though offshore oil and natural gas exploration now extends up to 200 miles into the Gulf of Mexico, the helicopter pilots who provide service to these offshore oil rigs lose radio contact and critical weather information when they go beyond 50 miles from shore. This poses grave dangers to the passengers and crew of the approximately 7,500 helicopter flights which occur daily in the Gulf. Additionally, Coast Guard rescue capabilities in the Gulf remain limited.
"We must not tolerate such deadly working conditions. How many more tragic deaths must we grieve before we do something to protect helicopter pilots and their passengers?," Wytkind asked.
The TTD’s Executive Committee unanimously approved a policy statement March 7 demanding government action to improve the safety of Gulf helicopter operations, citing a widespread acknowledgment by government and industry that a problem exists. Yet little progress has been made in establishing better communications and surveillance and implementing weather observation equipment. For example, last year Congress failed to appropriate funds for new radio technologies and weather information.
"Helicopter pilots in the Gulf of Mexico have some of the most dangerous jobs in all of transportation. They work under tremendous pressure and fly in some of the world’s most challenging conditions,"said Butch Grafton, president of the Professional Helicopter Pilots Association, a council of the TTD- affiliated Office of Professional Employees International Union. "It’s long past time that we stop ignoring the needs of these courageous workers
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That would be an interesting thread and one that might scare off many wannabe professionals like myself. Their have been multiple discussions on single engine operations in GOM and why it still exists I think everyone agrees that it is financially driven. While I don't think that anyone wants to see other people parish there are those that are just worried about the bottome line. At least that is what I have gleamed from reading the various threads.
The way I see it one of two things needs to happen. Either it needs to be too expensive (Insurance Premiums) to operate a single engine helo in certian circumstances or the Pilots that are putting the lives at risk need to come together with an "enough is enough" stance. Understand that I am such a low time pilot that I can't even claim to be wet behind the ears, as I only have 132 hours, but my father is a 25+yr GOM Pilot. I grew up watching my father leave every week to go do a job that he was and still is proud to do. However, I have very distinct memories of my phone conversations with him when there were hurricanes and when their was a lost of a fellow pilot, no matter who the operator was. That is when I remember my father and his co-workers were willing to talk, gripe, and complain about having issues such as safety, pay and working conditions addressed.
This next part is not meant to incite anyone, it is just the observation of a youth and I am fully aware that there is more to it than I know
Adversely, I remember that it wasn't until recently (within the last decade) that there has never been a united front. When the heat was turned up by the operators the pilots would disban quicker than untrained militia. I don't think that there will be a chance of making any changes until all the pilots of every operator in the GOM come together and present a unified and united stance on these issues.
So maybe starting that thread and letting everyone see what the real frequency is would help snap some out of denial and motivate them to action. What every pilot does is always dangerous (afterall gravity never slips up so to speak) and it is every pilots job to minimize that risk. So my hat is off to all of the professionals out there sacrificing their home and family life everyday to ensure that those supplies and people make it from point A to point B as safe as possible
The way I see it one of two things needs to happen. Either it needs to be too expensive (Insurance Premiums) to operate a single engine helo in certian circumstances or the Pilots that are putting the lives at risk need to come together with an "enough is enough" stance. Understand that I am such a low time pilot that I can't even claim to be wet behind the ears, as I only have 132 hours, but my father is a 25+yr GOM Pilot. I grew up watching my father leave every week to go do a job that he was and still is proud to do. However, I have very distinct memories of my phone conversations with him when there were hurricanes and when their was a lost of a fellow pilot, no matter who the operator was. That is when I remember my father and his co-workers were willing to talk, gripe, and complain about having issues such as safety, pay and working conditions addressed.
This next part is not meant to incite anyone, it is just the observation of a youth and I am fully aware that there is more to it than I know
Adversely, I remember that it wasn't until recently (within the last decade) that there has never been a united front. When the heat was turned up by the operators the pilots would disban quicker than untrained militia. I don't think that there will be a chance of making any changes until all the pilots of every operator in the GOM come together and present a unified and united stance on these issues.
So maybe starting that thread and letting everyone see what the real frequency is would help snap some out of denial and motivate them to action. What every pilot does is always dangerous (afterall gravity never slips up so to speak) and it is every pilots job to minimize that risk. So my hat is off to all of the professionals out there sacrificing their home and family life everyday to ensure that those supplies and people make it from point A to point B as safe as possible
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The Coast Guard has called off the search for a missing helicopter pilot in the Gulf, but the company he was working for is still looking.
The pilot was the only person on board when he made a mayday call Saturday morning - just before crashing about 8 miles south of Cameron.
That's where helicopter debris was found yesterday. The pilot was working for Rotor Craft Leasing out of Broussard.
The company's General Manager tells KATC he's sending divers and sonar devices to the debris field to continue the search.
The pilot was the only person on board when he made a mayday call Saturday morning - just before crashing about 8 miles south of Cameron.
That's where helicopter debris was found yesterday. The pilot was working for Rotor Craft Leasing out of Broussard.
The company's General Manager tells KATC he's sending divers and sonar devices to the debris field to continue the search.
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Searchers find body of pilot in Gulf crash
Richard Burgess
July 22, 2004
LAFAYETTE — Search crews Wednesday found the wreckage and pilot of a helicopter that crashed into the Gulf of Mexico south of Cameron Parish.
The pilot, Edwin Dixon of Nederland, Texas, had been missing since sending a distress signal just before 10 a.m. Saturday while returning from an offshore flight.
Divers found the main body of the helicopter early Wednesday morning, said Gerry Golden, general manager for Rotorcraft Leasing of Broussard, the company that owned the helicopter.
“The pilot was still inside,” Golden said.
The U.S. Coast Guard called off its search Sunday, but crews hired by the company continued to look for the wreckage with a dive boat and a boat equipped with sonar equipment.
Golden said the workers on Wednesday afternoon were loading pieces of the helicopter onto a boat to be brought back to company’s hangar, where National Transportation Safety Board investigators will work through the wreckage.
NTSB investigators have already been reviewing maintenance and flight records.
Golden said that Dixon was an experienced pilot who had flown with Rotorcraft since 2000.
Richard Burgess
July 22, 2004
LAFAYETTE — Search crews Wednesday found the wreckage and pilot of a helicopter that crashed into the Gulf of Mexico south of Cameron Parish.
The pilot, Edwin Dixon of Nederland, Texas, had been missing since sending a distress signal just before 10 a.m. Saturday while returning from an offshore flight.
Divers found the main body of the helicopter early Wednesday morning, said Gerry Golden, general manager for Rotorcraft Leasing of Broussard, the company that owned the helicopter.
“The pilot was still inside,” Golden said.
The U.S. Coast Guard called off its search Sunday, but crews hired by the company continued to look for the wreckage with a dive boat and a boat equipped with sonar equipment.
Golden said the workers on Wednesday afternoon were loading pieces of the helicopter onto a boat to be brought back to company’s hangar, where National Transportation Safety Board investigators will work through the wreckage.
NTSB investigators have already been reviewing maintenance and flight records.
Golden said that Dixon was an experienced pilot who had flown with Rotorcraft since 2000.
