UK AAIB December 2005

[Hilico]

R44 loses control during landing in rough weather at night after front-seat passenger slumps unconscious onto controls - here.

[bladewashout]

The report makes very interesting reading but somewhat inconclusive.

On the 4-point harness suggestion, I'm not sure I'd be able to fly it with a 4 point harness on: reaching the altimeter setting knob is hard enough with the standard inertia reel belts.

BW

[arm the floats]

I agree , it is an interesting accident this one.
A tricky flight by all accounts.

Was there any conversation between the pilot and the passenger after the first incident of control interference other than it was ok to go to sleep?

I can't imagine sleeping in an R44 in those conditions myself.

Was it the passenger collapsing that caused the problems in this flight ?

Or did the stress of the flight contribute to the passenger collapsing?

[headsethair]

On the 4-point harness suggestion, I'm not sure I'd be able to fly it with a 4 point harness on: reaching the altimeter setting knob is hard enough with the standard inertia reel belts.

Think the R44 4-point has an inertia reel on it which permits movement.

[helicopter-redeye]

The four pointer is a great improvement on the mini metro seat belts, which do lock out when leaning fwd sometimes.

The four point has a intertia reel (is this an Irish dance??) behind the seat and runs fwd very smoothly. The headrests also make sleeping easier if you like that sort of thing...

h-r