chuks
Agreed.

However, if the worst should happen in each case, which would be the lesser of the two evils?
1) Pilot shuts down and lunatic risks getting whacked in the head with a rotor blade. Unlikely though because he was banging on the door.
2) Pilot attempts to take off, lunatic holds on to skid, heli rolls over and rotor blades go everwhere, possibly hitting lunatic anyway and breaking back into the cabin area.:eek:

I still say the pilot panicked and put the aircraft at more risk by taking off.

I gotta vote with chopjock on this one.

There was probably a reasonable expectation that if the occupants remained there they would get the s--t kicked out of them by the aggressive, raging lunatic. Departing would seem like a far better option and I don't think anyone would predict that the fat b-----d would try to hang on to the skids. I hope the judge passes a meaningful sentence that demonstrates that endangering the safety of an aircraft is not a trivial matter.

And following Chopjock's option 2, during the run-down the lunatic does not stay close to the chopper door. Tragic end ensues - AAIb investigation into a fatality - press comment - etc, etc.

Why do we think that he "must" stay close to the body of the machine - nothing else he did was logical.

I think this one is "damned if you do, damned if you don't"

The pilot made a decision (I think that's what he was there for) and it proved to be the right decision in that case because no-one got hurt. What would have happened had he shut down is pure armchair speculation.

Speciality!
 

"What would have happened, had he shut down, is pure armchair speculation" - is of course Chop Jocs speciality!

Guilty verdict was recorded at the end of the case!

Tigerfish

I think you could draw a parallel between this and the Long Marston Autogyro fatality!

The circumstances (and aircraft) are not identical, but the options chosen by both pilots were similar (or would have been had the Autogyro managed to get airborne).

I'm not sure what the CAA licence issues are with the Autogyro pilot but a court of his peers cleared him!

I had an incident very similar to this happen to me in the 47.

We arrived at a pub high up on the moors here, landed 50m away from the car park, as you all know the 47 takes 5 minutes to cool down, running at 2300 engine rpm, so there we are sat and a girl climbs over the stone wall and starts running directly towards us with her hands waving in the air, first thourght was that there was someting wrong - fire etc behind us, but it became obvious that she wasn't going to stop, so there I am half flying speed, girl about 15m away at this stage hand about the height of the rotor disk, no time to throttle up and tale off, no rotor brake so the blades would take 2 to 3 mins to stop, half way through the cool down routine. What to do..? Both passenger and me waving frantically at the girl, my decision was to pull back on the cyclic to raise the disk as much, prime the passenger to cut the mags while I attempted to undo my harness so I could rugby tackle her to the ground... as it happened she looked up about a foot from the edge of the disk and then promptly sat on the ground, by this time engine was cut, passenger hanging onto the cyclic, me half way out of the door...

Turned out she was blind drunk... thorght it was fun, so we had a little chat with her and her drunk mates after and I showd them just how close it had got.

I had only around 150 hours at this stage, still to this day I am not sure what I did was correct, but when you have to react quickly there may not be time to mull over the possibilities... my thourght was that if the engine was throttled up and I had attempted to lift off, I would then be possibly guilty of flying into her? So cut the engine to remove that possibility but upon reflection should I have attempted to get out - where would I have been with no piolt at the controls (passenger - wife has 56 hours on a 44)

So not sure if I was/did the wrong thing, anyway chaps, food for thourght

Sorry about the thread drift.

Kev.

Agree John R81 & EESDL. Get back in the hot seat, Mr Blokland! Sounds like Neptunus Rex has a job for you in the Hebrides, don't think there are many cranky millionaires protecting their Trabants up there, either :ok:

This rich man needs to get a couple of teeth knocked out! :} He prob thinks his money will make him get away, no matter how stupid his actions are. Hopefully the law will prevail this time!

Good news :)
 

Houshang Jafari has been sentenced to 12 months :)

That should bring him down a peg or two. I have to admit that I am pleased with the sentence !

From BBC Bristol;

BBC News - Angry car owner jailed for grabbing helicopter

One year inside
 

The law does indeed prevail

Angry car owner jailed for grabbing helicopter

Obviously I won't copy the text of the story here as that would be breaking copyright.

Close?
 

I am not a helicopter pilot but unless it was an emergency (or medevac or similar) isn't that helicopter a bit too close to the buildings for comfort? I know it is possible and lawful but it caused a nuisance to a member of the public which could have been avoided if the helicopter had arrived a bit further away from the residences. All pilots should try to avoid unecessary disturbance to the non flying public. That is why we avoid built up areas on takeoff etc. Not that I have any sympathy with the man found guilty as he could have caused the deaths of five people by his actions.

Good job Mr. Jafatty has plenty of £££'s in the bank....

I don't normally subscribe to the "Where there's blame there's a claim" routine, but in this case, where his actions directly resulted in the pilot not flying since the incident, ( whether through fear of repetition, loss of confidence, or whatever, and whatever people may think about the strength of Dr. Blockland's character ) then maybe the pilot's legal team should make application to relieve the w****r of some of his dosh ( he won't need { much of } it inside anyway), to help pay for licence renewal, and some Compo for the mental anguish/any loss of earnings etc.

As for the question of whether the pilot should have attempted take off or not, individual character will of course play a major part - not everyone is as big and brave as Chopjock, who would have stayed on the ground with passengers screaming for him to take off -

Assuming a successful shutdown without decapitation - what then ? -

This is him when he's NOT raging mad :
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...11/Jafatty.jpg

.... Would he be interested in a reasoned debate over the dangers of approaching a departing aircraft, compared with the huge inconvenience of having to clean a bit of dust off a beat up old Landrover? - :ugh:

Chopjock - do you really fancy taking him on :confused:

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1.../Coconutty.jpg

No, it is not :rolleyes:

I am not an aggressive individual and if I was facing a similar situation I would like to think I would not panic. To me that would suggest it is either safe to lift or not. I would certainly not jump into the hover with a lunatic banging on the door or swinging off the skids.
With regards to the pax demanding I take off, well I do what I think is safe as I am in command, not them.

Hi,

I'm a local resident with an interest in the outcome of this trial. I know one of the witnesses who saw the incident involving Jafari. He is a controversial character whose conviction for this offence and 12 month custodial sentence will bring a sense of relief to residents.

I also attended much of Jafari's trial. The safety issues regarding the suitability of the landing site for a private helicopter, and the associated risks, were comprehensively dealt with in evidence by Keith Thomas of the CAA (acting as an expert) who is himself an experienced helicopter pilot.

The photo in the BBC news report was one of a series of photos of the incident taken by a resident and used in evidence. It gives a misleading impression of the proximity of the aircraft to the Dower House and nearby trees. The Green is a large open area of lawn. My recollection of the expert evidence is that landing a private helicopter on the Green in front of the Dower House was a bit of a grey area. It is technically a "congested" landing site but Mr Thomas said it did not require CAA prior permission; it was a matter of judgement for a pilot with the experience of Dr Mark Blokland, although he personally would not have made a landing approach over the Dower House itself. He also did not say Dr Blokland was at fault for taking off when threatened by Jafari. Witnesses said they thought Jafari also appeared to seek to open the pilot's door.

Jafari's own sworn testimony at the trial included a statement to the effect that he had been a passenger in a helicopter about 200 times.

He really ought to have known better.

Left skid up his right nostril and haul on that collective:D:D:D

So in summary the judge got it about right. A rarity for Ppruners (at least on Jetblast that is).

So,
Angry resident wants to talk to noisy pilot. Pilot ignores him. Now the even angrier resident approaches helicopter and knocks on the door. "Hey I want a word with you, don't ignore me"
Pilot suddenly, without warning lifts into the hover, almost knocking over resident, causing him to hold on to the skids.
Resident goes to jail for a year and the pilot gets off scot free.
Is this how we should deal with complaints?
Hell police state or what.:eek:

Were you there? How do you know what he said to the pilot?

Which part of kicking helicopter/throwing an object as it communicates a calm sense of 'wanting to talk' to you?

How do you know he wasn't saying, 'I am going to grab you and pull from from the helicopter', or, 'Get out now, I am going to kick the **** out of you'?