Two helicopters collide - Gold Coast, Queensland - Sea World 2/1/2023

[EMS R22]

I would like to send my thoughts and condolences to all the friends and family of those involved.

No one goes to work to not come.

Rest In Peace.

[Flying Binghi]

Must be video of all angles of the prang. Just seen some speed boat dash cam footage.

[Fliegenmong]

Complacency? .... I am in and around there all the time, the footage I've seen....how?? Inbound and outbound calls presumably made, but not sighting traffic?????

[TimmyTee]

Channel 7 has grainy vision of the collision.

Twitter

[helispotter]

Originally Posted by Fliegenmong

...Inbound and outbound calls presumably made, but not sighting traffic?????

So sad that this has occurred on what were presumably both routine joyflights completed safely thousands of times beforehand. I have been thinking about it since watching the footage. Both helicopters are quite dark. There may have been little relative movement of the one departing for the pilot of the one approaching from above. So perhaps difficult to see? The earlier Sea World Long Ranger / Jet Ranger scheme of blue stripes on a white fuselage may have been easier to spot? Footage of firefighting helicopters shows that in some cases, aside from strobing lights, they also have upper sides of rotors painted in contrasting light and dark colours (eg: one blade white, other black), which then become quite visible in flight for any helicopter overhead.

[[email protected]]

It does look like a spectacular failure of procedures and lookout. very sad, RIP

[PPRuNeUser469990]

Seems to be an awful lot of crashes lately, or maybe they are just being reported more.

[heli1]

VH-XH...9??? Not possible ??

[Capt SFB]

G'Day heli1, is now, we ran out of 3-letter combinations for registrations . . .

SFB

[skadi]

Originally Posted by helispotter

So sad that this has occurred on what were presumably both routine joyflights completed safely thousands of times beforehand. I have been thinking about it since watching the footage. Both helicopters are quite dark. There may have been little relative movement of the one departing for the pilot of the one approaching from above. So perhaps difficult to see? The earlier Sea World Long Ranger / Jet Ranger scheme of blue stripes on a white fuselage may have been easier to spot? Footage of firefighting helicopters shows that in some cases, aside from strobing lights, they also have upper sides of rotors painted in contrasting light and dark colours (eg: one blade white, other black), which then become quite visible in flight for any helicopter overhead.

There is one aerial pic of the scene where you can see one of the 130 from above. Main rotor
blades are with white markings

skadi

[Obba]

I was walking out of the GGUH today and saw a police escort for an ambulance. Sirens blaring away. I thought to myself something big has happened….!,
Immediately rang my partner telling her that something was going on.

Shocking news! See these guys nearly everyday. Land - refuel - bays at my local airport YSPT.

Wishing all concerned the very best.

[rigidkid]

This is an absolutely tragic event. It will no doubt reverberat throughout the helicopter community as a shock to us all. We all feel the pain of any loss and even more so when engaged with the the community. Heart felt condolences to those family members who have lost loved ones on this tragic day.

[John Eacott]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

It does look like a spectacular failure of procedures and lookout. very sad, RIP

Both pilots were on the left and not the more normal right seat: this does change perceptions when viewing the footage currently available.

We will certainly miss Ash: RIP.
https://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au...s&mode=premium

[helispotter]

Originally Posted by heli1

VH-XH...9??? Not possible ??

heli1: It is the first time I have realised the Australian aircraft register has started to use numbers as part of the last three characters of the registration. The news footage shows that it was VH-XH9 (registered in Australia on 3 Nov 22) that managed to land despite the significant damage to the canopy. This seems to be the helicopter that had been approaching for a landing.

The expansion of the registration was apparently announced on 1 June 2022, as reported by Australian Flying:

https://www.australianflying.com.au/...2DABC%20system.

[auldlassie]

some clear footage prior to impact

9 news Australia on youtube has some very clear footage of the take off of the most badly damaged helicopter and both helicopter trajectoriesuntil immediately before the crash. Very perplexing how this happened. Not sure if this will show up here correctly, sorry, but if not, you can find it on youtube easily enough.

You Tube

[helispotter]

Originally Posted by John Eacott

Both pilots were on the left and not the more normal right seat: this does change perceptions when viewing the footage currently available...

Here is some older footage shared on YouTube showing departure of an AS350B2 from Sea World helipad with passenger filming from front left seat, so a similar perspective as the pilot may have had in the departing EC130B4:

You Tube

While from around 8:15 in this footage, the view when approaching for landing at one of the four helipads that now exist to the south of the Sea World site (which had been car parking when I visited there years back). This is again from front left seat of an AS350B2:

You Tube

This is really sobering, given the name of the pilot flying the Squirrel from the new heliport facility around 3 years ago:

You Tube

[Uplinker]

Terrible, and my deepest sympathy.

Can TCAS or similar be fitted to helicopters, and if so, would the system work in an aircraft on the ground?

[unknown.mp3]

Originally Posted by Uplinker

Terrible, and my deepest sympathy.

Can TCAS or similar be fitted to helicopters, and if so, would the system work in an aircraft on the ground?

Helicopters can be fitted with TCAS. In my experience, the TCAS was inhibited on the ground via the WOW switch but you could manually override it to function as ‘on’.

[helicrazi]

Originally Posted by unknown.mp3

Helicopters can be fitted with TCAS. In my experience, the TCAS was inhibited on the ground via the WOW switch but you could manually override it to function as ‘on’.

Only useful for SA though, you would only get a TA at these heights, RA's wouldnt be given

Godspeed to all, truely horrific.

[ApolloHeli]

Originally Posted by Uplinker

Can TCAS or similar be fitted to helicopters, and if so, would the system work in an aircraft on the ground?

Yes it can. I'm not sure how commonly it would be found in an EC130, and below 1000' AGL it is TA only so it's not like a TCAS RA would have prevented this as it occurred at too low an altitude, but the situational awareness gained from a visual display of nearby traffic might have been enough.

A helicopter fitted with TCAS would still show the pilot traffic information while on the ground - any WOW inputs simply inhibit TCAS alerts but the reception and display of traffic information still occurs regardless of the switch status.