Accidents due to Distraction?

[TwinHueyMan]

Hey all,

Got tasked with providing a class on distraction causing incidents and accidents, but I'd rather have an "enthralling vingette" than a little itty bitty tidbit from the local news... and of course the NTSB site is hard as hell to search for specific reasons.

Anyone got a good war story they wouldn't mind sharing (in detail) for the benefit of our pilots and mechanics?

Thanks
Mike (already regretting asking for 'war stories' in a forum of helicopter pilots)

[Revolutionary]

Not helicopter related but the classic 'distraction causing an accident' accident occurred on December 29, 1972 just West of Miami over the Everglades. An Eastern Airlines Lockheed L1011 on approach for landing. One of the Gear Down lights fails to illuminate. The crew of three becomes so preoccupied with what is likely a burnt out lightbulb that they allow the aircraft to descend into the swamp, resulting in 99 fatalities.

[Spunk]

oil filler cap

Mechanic was doing a thoroughly post-flight at the end of the day, boss came in, yelled at him to get something "more important" done, mechanic left aircraft to please boss, forgot about finishing the post-flight. Lucky me did an even more thoroughly pre-flight inspection the very next morning and found the engine oil tank wide open with the funnel still in there.

First time ever I bitched at the mechanic (and at my boss for distracting the mechanic).

[jungliebeefer]

The big distraction incident from the Navy happened to an ASW Sea King in the Eighties I think. As the aircraft lifted from the deck on a dark night the crew selected the gear up. A faulty microswitch meant that the gear continually came up and then dropped causing a loud distracting vibration - as a result both of the crew members allowed themselves to concentrate on looking inside the aircraft to try and identify the problem - end result aircraft descended and crashed into the sea .... a sobering lesson