Two helicopters collide - Gold Coast, Queensland - Sea World 2/1/2023
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Fliegensville, Gold Coast Australia
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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?????
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.
Last edited by helispotter; 2nd Jan 2023 at 09:22.
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It does look like a spectacular failure of procedures and lookout. very sad, RIP
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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.
blades are with white markings
skadi
Last edited by skadi; 2nd Jan 2023 at 12:53.
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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.
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.
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Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: In a really nice place
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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.
Originally Posted by [email protected]
It does look like a spectacular failure of procedures and lookout. very sad, RIP
We will certainly miss Ash: RIP.
https://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au...s&mode=premium
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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.
The expansion of the registration was apparently announced on 1 June 2022, as reported by Australian Flying:
https://www.australianflying.com.au/...2DABC%20system.
Last edited by helispotter; 2nd Jan 2023 at 12:07.
Join Date: Feb 2014
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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.
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:
This is really sobering, given the name of the pilot flying the Squirrel from the new heliport facility around 3 years ago:
Last edited by helispotter; 2nd Jan 2023 at 11:58.
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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’.
Godspeed to all, truely horrific.
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.
Last edited by ApolloHeli; 3rd Jan 2023 at 14:03. Reason: Added on-ground details
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