Crash In Gloucester, 2 Injured
 

From the BBC:

Hope they are ok...

WGS

I'm told they were returning in their Gazelle from a helicopter fly-in near Thruxton, and that the accident happened at their house.
The pilot is 'walking wounded' but his wife's injuries are serious and, as the report says, life-threatening.

It would be a kindness to their friends who post on or read this forum not to start speculating about the cause, and just hope the lady pulls through.

Wishing those involved a speedy recovery...
Thoughts are with you.

All the best,
WGS

Fingers crossed that she makes a full recovery.

Best wishes

fb101

Piece in the daily rag, states the Lady pax is in a more stable condition today, I hope she makes a full recovery!!

Vfr

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...erwreckage.jpghttp://www.geocities.com/pprunessilsoesid/gazcrash.jpg http://www.geocities.com/pprunessilsoesid/gazcrash2.jpg

I just can't imagine how any family would feel with the couple both hurt and physical reminders of their chopper in bits outside the back window and presumably a none-too-happy looking roof on your house. Nowhere to get away from it.

Irrespective of how/why it happened, getting back in and flying again would be challenging to say the least.

My best wishes to them

BW

Now thats what I call, 'Severe moderation !'

An explaination might have been nice!

Regards,

SS

Back to the thread .....

The lady was very seriously injured, has undergone surgery and, although 'stable' in hospital speak, is still in a bad way.

I seem to have had my post along with others removed, this I find offensive as I did not state anything derogatroy or insulting, in fact I can not see what I said that would cause any offence to anyone who read my post?? I did not even have had the decency of an explanation. WHY WAS THIS ??

I guess this one also will not last very long, my best wishes to the injured parties who are making a recovery.




Your post was a response to a post which was removed.
I thought the reason for removing yours with it would be obvious.
Obviously not.

Heliport

I'm pleased to report that the lady has now come out of her coma.
However, she is still seriously ill and in Intensive Care.

Yet another occasion when the ambulance authority and the police failed to notify the ARCC at Kinloss since they are theoretically responsible for the coordination of response to aeronautical incidents. If people don't use the SAR assets for what they meant for, don't be surprised when they are packaged up and sold off to be replaced with a cheaper but far less capable PFI.

From my vast experience in the ambulance service I doubt that most of the control room staff - if any have even heard of the ARCC!

The control rooms are so busy and understaffed these days, along with the high staff turn over, poor back ground training and on some shifts the control rooms are like a kindergarden with the average age around 20 and behaviour levels closer to 8 year olds. Some (ambulance) dispatchers are not even aware of the resources available to them for 'normal' everyday incidents - forunately aircraft incidents are still not a common event in most areas. And if 'knowledgable' crews point out that maybe A or B would be available or helpful it is often seen as 'being told their job' and will result in you definately not getting A or B... most definately wrong but true.

I went to an aircraft incident a while back which resulted in some serious injuries and trying to explain to the (non airfield) senior fire officer that his men shouldn't really be poking around the wreckage and/or moving things/tidying it up as the AAIB might want to have a good look was met with "Who the f***are the AAIB?" and when told he simply replied "Never heard of them and it's their problem to sort it out then - not mine..."

PW

Just to put one small part of the record straight re: ARCC Kinloss. I was the pilot of the Air Ambulance that was first on scene, arriving a few minutes before the Fire Service.

My first task after requesting additional ambulance service backup and a police presence to secure the scene, was to get the make and registration of the aircraft which our control then passed immediately to ARCC Kinloss

I would also like to use this opportunity to commend my two paramedic crew who, without a thought for their own safety, jumped into a burning aircraft to render immediate aid to the female passenger. They were subsequently doused in dry powder by the enthusiatic fire service! (who also did a terrific job)

A comment on the post about preserving the scene for the AAIB: First we save life, then we save property, then if there is anything else left to save, we save that. Then we leave it for the AAIB - I'm sure they wouldn't have it any other way.

Hi EC135, totally agree with your comments about the crew, I only heard the full details yesterday - please pass on my congratulations. As I understand it, without their actions the title of this thread would have read rather differently!

Crab, there may be a problem of Ambulance/Police controls not informing ARCC of aircraft incidents. However, you need to realise that some of the smaller Ambulance controls are run by a similar number of staff that run the ARCC. The difference is in the number of calls they will be handling! In addition to taking the calls, responding vehicles, liaising with other services, they may also have to give CPR instruction etc. to distraught relatives over the phone – and then the Air Ambulance wants better details of the incident location! (And this is coming from someone who gripes about Ambulance controls more than most.)

In this particular case, the ARCC was informed (as I understand it) within 15 minutes of the incident. There was no requirement for search, as the house address gave a pretty accurate idea of the incident location, rescue was best carried out by the Fire and Ambulance crews who arrived within a few minutes. Therefore, the priorities for the control were to respond Air Ambulance, Fire Service and Road Ambulances as quickly as possible and that is what happened.

Our Air Ambulance controller (1 bloke, 3 helicopters, 2 radios, 3 phone lines) has an initial priority of responding the helicopter towards the incident, working out a grid reference, informing Police control rooms (for all 3 helicopters!) and then informing ARCC if it is an aircraft incident. Again, this is what happened.

Using this incident to promote the future of Military SAR is misguided at best. I think you will find the vast majority of us out here, are already supporters and would be more than happy to see Military SAR resources coming to our aid.

TeeS

This is a control room call.
There is no need to call the RCC in this instance, why should there be???
Would the SAR local unit be called out? I think not.

We do a couple of these each and every year probably more - certainly wouldnt call the RCC - UNLESS there is confusion/doubt as to what has happened and where the crash scene is. OR the military are involved.


This is a cut and shut case! Dont want the bloody crabs hovering overhead wingeing!!!

Calm down Crab@Saavn...

Brave paramedics. :ok:

From what I've heard -
The pilot was injured but able to get out. His wife was more seriously injured, and trapped in the wreckage. He wasn't able to put out the fire with the onboard extinguisher but, despite being injured himself, managed to get to the house for a bigger extinguisher and fought the fire as much as he could with that.
He tried (I think with the help of a neighbour) to get his wife out of the helicopter but she eventually had to be cut free by the emergency services.

As TeeS says, the title of this thread could so easily have read rather differently.

Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre is what it stands for and that is one of its main responsibilities - it then tasks the appropriate asset for the job.

Problem 1 - the ARCC can't task Police or Air Ambulance.

Problem 2 - if the AA or ASU pitch up and can't handle the incident (although it sound like they did a very commendable job on this one), because no-one launches the SAR crew, the response time is much slower.

If we got launched to every aircraft crash in UK (as we should) and then got turned back because the situation was under control, none of us would complain. What we get gripped about is being left out of the equation completely when it might make a difference.

In Scotland the ARCC works closely with the other air assets, why not in England and Wales?

Crab, I can't quite see the logic behind your statement that you should be tasked to every aircraft crash in the UK?

The services in the UK (Fire, Ambulance, Police) have contingency plans for all kinds of incidents, major, minor, aviation or otherwise. Where appropriate these include liaison with the armed services and their resources.

What skills can you bring that we (the civvy world) can't muster?
The two crew in my cab have some of the most advanced skills available to paramedics in the UK and a basics doctor is always on call in the county. My crew operate around aircraft every day and deal with impact related trauma on a continous basis. The fire service deal with - well, fire and the police are well versed in scene preservation after serious incidents.

A Gazelle on it side looks pretty much like a large saloon car rolled over. Jet A is a posh version of diesel.

What would you have in your cab that no other civilian service could bring to the scene and in less time? That's not a snide remark - I am interested to understand why you feel you should automatically be tasked?

Hi Crab

Sorry, but I can't resist copying one of your quotes from a previous thread and ask how it compares with your 'slagging off' Ambulance Services and Air Ambulances and then suggesting SAR aircraft should be launched to all air crashes and warning Military SAR will be lossed if it is not used.

"Maybe you should look at how many jobs you get launched to that aren't really essential but keep your callout stats high to please the charity and the NHS and then consider your exposure time to the 'FJ threat' during non-urgent lifesaving flights.

I am sure I seem hard nosed and unreasonable about this but everyone loves to slag off the military because we are an easy target."

TeeS

And a further 'sorry', I have just realised this is getting well off the thread!