Of course sober pilots fly into power cables too. Was this a drink related crash or was the pilot flying perfectly, but just did not see the cables?
Always two sides to an arguement.

At 5 times the legal limit for driving a car, I think you'd have trouble arguing that alcohol wasn't a significant factor in this crash. He wasn't just a little bit drunk.

"Mr Gibson from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority said there's no evidence that drug and alcohol use is a big problem in the aviation industry."

But they'll be sure to start harassing people, just the same. Brilliant.

0.245??!!:eek: I would be in a coma at that level. I'm surprised he was actually flying, rather than doing a "Hogg" and losing it on the takeoff. Does this mean he was a helluva pilot, or the R22 isn't as hard to fly as rumored?:E

Surprised the ship doesn't look worse than that after hitting wires. Maybe not that high, so less distance to fall?

Sorry - I don't understand....the Robbo look normal to me :}

Mmm thanks for that Thomas Coupling, what a well adjusted person you are :yuk:

http://www.pprune.org/6392810-post23.html :rolleyes:

Being Mataranka and after the event he was probably relatively sober compared to any other human being within about 200 miles.

No, :=
they will start regulating them:)
with sensible complaince monitoring:D
to prevent accidents and protect the public.:ok:

A nil blood alcohol demand is niether sensible nor practical. Depending upon the equipment used, but also on the sex, body mass, age, habitus and medical condition of the pilot, you can measure blood alcohol days after a drink. Certain infections produce low levels of blood alcohol as do certain legitimate drugs and even lotions.

It is the same with testing drivers - once you make the legal limt very low or zero you put safe and even teetotal pilots at risk of prosecution.

Oh well, more work for the lawyers

True.:D
IIRC the limit is 0.02 in Australia.:)

Agreed, but I haven't seen anyone on this thread or in Australian aviation promoting an absolute nil alcohol limit.

The driving limit is generally 0.05, but can be less, depending on the state, your licence level, and occupation. That's plenty to allow for a couple of glasses of your favourite, or the inaccuracy of the measuring equipment, or whatever.

Yes and no. BTW its .05 in the NT and zero for bus /taxi or truck drivers. Just the other day in a town called Darwin (yes I know) not far from mad-or-ranka a 19 yr old driver with six on board wiped out his limo and a 14 yr old pax of six in the car none of whom were wearing seatbelts. So the msg is not getting read. Same town over a period of 6 months not long back every sunday around 2.00 am would be another single vehicle wrapped around a heavy power pole, with usually the driver and/or pax dead. So much so it seemed they were being set up by a serialist.

This case was sad as he had been counselled the night before by a senior pilot, about how it will bite him if he doesn't ease up, his wife had taken his keys off him to stop him driving, a mate had driven him home which was halfway between the place of the drunken night (Katherine) and the crash site and had lectured him severely as he dropped him of.

No one thought about the helicopter sitting there with the keys in it and the assembling party of camdrafters, rodeo riders etc just down the road. None of whom when he first landed there were smart or robust enough to whip the aircraft keys. No, instead, as he was leaving a fairly well know photographer (hence the photo quality) was set up in the grandstand overlooking the rodeo ground to take a couple of photos of a 'beat-up' as he was to leave.

The mate who dropped him off had repaired back to a domicile in Katherine where Duane's wife was and others, and started relating how he had, "told that useless bast*rd that he wants to sort himself out or he'll kill himself". That, the last thing his wife heard before the msg that there had indeed been a crash at Matarankas and they thought it was Duane..

Later we heard that there had been other shenanigans, up and down the highway at night, and flicking the Landing light on unsuspecting motor cars to scare them. Had some responsible people heard that instead of it being kept secret then there may have been another outcome.

The pax in the accident was a bull rider, say no more.

Whatever else is said it needs to be remembered that Alcoholism is a disease, and a father in a family is and should always remain as the hero to the young bereaved. At the very least until they are old enough to grasp and understand the realities of it all in a controlled environment.

I too had to struggle with a DAMP (drug and Alcohol Management Plan) for my AOC.
I hate it and I doubt it will curb this sort of accident, but it certainly may stop the various reports one hears of RPT and GA drivers wandering around in a half drunken stupor.

Mmmm ....

Good post toppy .... if a bit sad and depressing :(

That will go down well in van 8 or 9 or........:E

Call me crazy, but I think there are already regulations concerning drinking and flying. Feel free to explain how additional regulations will fare in the face of an idiot who chooses to ignore them.

TRAFFIC ACT

As above the NT traffic Act, tool down to Part V, you will see a much simpler way to handle drug and alcohol limts exceedance. Just a few pages. There is in the traffic act a lot of stuff that could be edited out to make it simplistic for Aviation. Instead we have to battle with CASR 99, a document of some 77 pages.

It won't at all, the Part 99 refers only to commercial operations, and further those with employees. Those who fly for themself could probably argue that it doesn't apply to them, even though all single pilot ops would surely have an entity for the AOC, different from the pilot, therefore the pilot will be technically an employee under Section 99.

Regards Private ops, well the old eight hour rule applies, well does it? One rule for some, none for the rest. Who is going to race out and police them? A loner out in the scrub or in the city will take a liberal view of regulations either on a once only effort of intoxication or as a problematic user. (That is regulations which it can easily be seen are not being enforced AT ALL, so it's the, 'they will never me syndrome'.)

It is a farce the whole deal, better to apply a modified traffic act for everyone and stop messing around, that at least would save a huge expenditure of time and money for AOC holders to build a DAMP.

It would also cut out another unecessary CASA bureaucracy tsk tsk.

New legislation won't stop nobber's like this. The good news: the passenger survived...more good news: the pilot has been removed from the gene pool.
Good news all round really.