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NZ Helicopter makes emergency landing in lake
Anyone know what type of machine it was?
A helicopter pilot has made an emergency landing into Lake Rotorua. Police say a man and his two children were on board the commercial scenic flight when the pilot noticed a problem shortly after take off. She decided to make an emergency landing into knee deep water in Lake Rotorua on Sunday, about 50 metres from the shore. A police spokesperson says no one was hurt and the helicopter has sustained no obvious damage. Copyright © 2013, Radio New Zealand A helicopter pilot and three passengers had a lucky escape after crash landing on Lake Rotorua this morning. Emergency Services were called to Lake Rotorua about 10.15am after reports the helicopter had struck difficulty. The female pilot from Volcanic Air Safaris was taking a scenic flight with a man and his two children. The pilot landed about 80m off the shore of Lake Rd, near the end of Bennetts Rd, Koutu, police spokeswoman Kim Perks said . When the pilot realised something was wrong, she turned the helicopter into shallow water on the lake to do a controlled landing, she said. A local who witnessed the crash landing waded out to help the pilot and passengers out of the aircraft. A boat in the area took the four people to Volcanic Air Safaris' base at the Rotorua Lakefront. Dorien Vroom from the helicopter company said nobody on board was injured. "Everybody's out at the moment having coffee." Ms Vroom did not know how high the chopper was before ending up in the lake or why it needed to make the emergency landing. Ms Perks said Civil Aviation Authority was securing the scene and investigating what went wrong. It is understood the helicopter will be winched out of the lake by another aircraft. Rotorua Fire Service senior station officer Colin Rolfe said it appeared the pilot did a fantastic job landing the helicopter safely. "It landed upright on its skids," he said. Updated - Robbie 44 by the looks of the photo. Lucky escape after chopper crash - National - NZ Herald News |
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NZ R44 emergency landing into lake
Some "interesting" stories around the engine:
Engine malfunction cause of Rotorua helicopter crash - National - NZ Herald News |
So, some operators deem it perfectly acceptable to slap any old crashed engine if the original one is no good. Then just continue on a revenue flight over water; obviously no need for life jackets either, the water's only knee deep.
The words gung and ho must surely feature in the Ops Manual. |
Are we getting to a stage now that passengers need ask to see the service records before embarking on a flight?
Surely at least the pilot should be familiar with the engine's background and do the relevant checks? |
why would the pilot be familiar ? Are you familiar with every part of a helicopter I think not. One has to assume that if engine was fitted by an approved organisation that it must have been done properly. In EASA land this would be picked up on the audits we have to do on ones maintenance company and if not by us then the audits carried out by the regulatory body.
Doesn't mean though the company was trying to pull a flanker, engine should at the very least had a shock load inspection |
Seems prudent to ask questions as a pilot after any maintenence....any component change warrants an inquiry and is the way we work with the maintenence crews here in Canada from what I've been part of for around 40 years. Communications with the crew chief is standard here at Erickson....component history is basic knowledge for all.
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Engine apparently came out of this privately owned black one.
Skulle landa för toalettbesök - op.se |
Another example of these low cost helicopters encouraging low cost operating habits.
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Actually Volcanic have had a pretty good run over the last 25 or so years, this would be their first time in the news with "bad" news. From all accounts they run a reasonable op, take on new guys and give them a go at easier types of flying.
might have been a case of the operator trusting their maintenance supplier, or they both might have been caught out by assuming that whoever they purchased it off had done everything properly. As they say never assume... Disclaimer: i have nothing to do with Volcanic or their maintenance supplier, i don't even know the guy that owns the company. i have talked to a couple of their pilots while operating close to them about 10-15 years ago. |
What I find interesting is that the news article about the investigation suggests that the management/chief pilot believe it is acceptable to take off from a floating platform directly over water and not have passengers wear a life jacket. Surely the rules are the minimum standard but commen sense and safety is up up to the company?
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overwater safety equipment
It seems there are some operators who believe it will never happen to them!
And the equipment is expensive and will never be used? Even some members of this forum have this attitude! |
The comment on the shock load inspection is an interesting one. I spoke to an aircraft spares breaker selling an engine from an R22 which rolled over on takeoff, he said that the engine did not require a shock load inspection as the belt drive system would "give" and therefore no shock load. I pointed out that in that case the engine would almost certainly have suffered an overspeed and would still require stripping. Silence!!!!!
As for things being better in EASA land this report from page 76 onwards is food for thought http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources...FB%2010-12.pdf |
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