Fly neighbourly - bad publicity
 

Pilot in helicopter incident could face fines in NSW Australia

08.12.2006

A helicopter pilot who landed in a school playground while there were children around could face fines and demerit points on his licence if an investigation goes against him.

Civil Aviation Safety Authority corporate communication manager Peter Gibson said an investigation into the pilot and the charter company, which is based outside the Northern Rivers, could take weeks to complete.

The investigation follows the unauthorised landing on Tuesday of a chartered helicopter at St Finbarr’s Catholic Primary School at Byron Bay. The helicopter landed in a playground during the lunch period and, as soon as it set down, was rushed by excited children. Teachers tried to hold the children back, fearing they could be hurt or killed by the rotors, but were overwhelmed by the numbers.

Mr Gibson said CASA had spoken to the school and the company. The pilot was the one most likely to be penalised if the complaint was upheld. The company could lose its licence only if it had a history of unauthorised landings.

Depending on the findings, the pilot could face fines and demerit points if the unauthorised landing was deliberate, or be counselled if it was not. Mr Gibson said the school might also have the option of pursuing a civil legal case for trespass.

End quote:

How to win friends and influence people? Bad luck for pilot or maybe an honest mistake?

What do you think?

Rob,

There are a few issues with this case. Having flown at many airshows and conducted a lot of recruiting tasks that have involved landing helicopters at schools, I am aware as to how children behave around helicopters. Without someone restraining the children on the ground I am surprised no one was killed or injured. The company you mentioned was a charter company. Was the pilot on a charter? If so, I assume he is a CPL at least and should be well aware of the requirement to obtain landowners permission and also to ensure there are no hazards on the ground. How does somenone get to a CPL and work for a company and still think it is alright to land at a school during a time when the students arent in the class room. (ie lunch or recess), obviously a lapse in his training if he was unaware. Also what type of aircraft was he is in. I'm assuming it was no bigger than either a squirrel or jetranger and as such the tailrotor would have posed the greatest risk. Probably the only area where the pilot wouldnt be able to see someone approaching from.

Its a real shame that incidents like this happen and create a bad name for all. Unless of course the pilot had some kind of emergency landing then good on him/her for getting it on the ground safely with no one on the ground being hurt.

However, if it was just bad judgement then I think a heavy penalty including fines and demerit points should prevent him/her from reoffending. It should also be well publicised to ensure that others can learn from this pilot's mistakes. Maybe some kind of aviation risk management training could be taught during the CPL. My licenses are military so unsure if it is alraedy in the syllabus.

Safe flying,

LF

demerit points - aviation licenses??????????????????????????

Now I could quite possibly be wrong, as its a few years since I did my airlaw, but I believe the penalty points relate to a monetary value, but becuase the relative 'value' of our money changes, they would have to keep change the fine values. So instead they keep the same number of penalty units, just the amount of money that each penalty unit relates to changes. The only thing about our civil aviation authority perhaps that is oraganised and streamlined? Of course, when it benefits them.....
Sorry. I shouldn't be so cynical.
But none the less, with out knowing the full story, and willing to retract my statement if there is a very valid reason for the landing, the pilot should know better. Its bad enough with kids running around a fully shut down stationary machine. Piss poor planning creates piss poor performance??
chop