It can happen to anyone...
 

Pilot dies after being hit by a rotor blade:

Pilot Dead After Being Struck By Helicopter Rotor - PAHomepage.com

Certainly can.

Sad news, good reminder not to become blasé about moving around under the disc with blades rotating at any speed.

"It can happen to anyone..."

But it shouldn't :ugh:

Hi All,

This is a very sad situation. I'm presuming that it was the main rotor blade that struck the pilot. A number of years ago I began telling my passengers to never walk around the back of a helicopter regardless of whether the rotors were in motion or not.

Similarly, I also have my own rule of never walking round the back of any helicopter unless I'm conducting my checks. Many times I've stopped myself from walking around the tail or under the tail boom and reversed direction just to ensure I stick with my rules.

I also remind any passengers that dis-embark whilst the rotors are in motion to ensure they exit forwards and outwards. I do this even if they are pilots which most of them are.

Joel :ok:

A spokesperson at the incident said...

"It puts a little bit of sorrow on the last day."

Something of an understatement I think. What does it take to instil more sorrow?

The report also intimates that the helicopter was being refuelled with rotors turning. A recipe for disaster.

This varies between types. There are several helicopters which can only be safely approached, with rotors turning, from the side or in some cases even the back. The key is to ensure that all pax are briefed with the relevant specific instructions before embarkation/disembarkation.

Hot fuelling is not a recipe for disaster. Performed correctly it is quite safe.

I require all pax to read a written safety briefing before boarding and review this verbally immediately before boarding. When feasible, I avoid hot loading/unloading. A cycle is more desirable than an injury/fatality. When loading with the rotors turning is necessary, a savvy escort (usually a pilot) accompanies pax to and from the helicopter. All part of my ops manual, which also prohibits the pilot from leaving the helo with rotors turning. As usual, every choice involves tradeoffs.

Instinctive reactions will get you hurt....or in this case killed!

You think not....have Rotator Cuff surgery or something similar....then drop an item and reach out to catch it!

We don't know the actual circumstances in this tragedy....but we do know a bit of thinking would have prevented it from happening.....starting with removing your Hat before getting near a running helicopter for instance.

No hat....it doesn't get blown off...or pulled into the inlet...and you don't blindly grab for it when it departs your head....or chase after it as it gets blown along the ground.

Avoiding the moving Tail Rotor....some aircraft tailbooms can be walked under (if the aircraft is level)....some you can be under safely so long as you stay in front of the tail fins/horizontal Stabilzer (BO and BK , Bell products for example) and some are just down right dangerous.

It is all about Situational Awareness....and not doing anything without thinking and considering what you are doing.

Every Aircraft is different....ever been around a K-MAX and its Main Rotor system?

Sadly, this fellow had a bad moment where he reacted rather than thinking about it first.....and he made a fatal mistake.

Yes....it could happen to any of us....that is the key point to remember. It might be you one day that has the Brain Infarction.

Well ... not safe enough IMHO. Safer with a turbine engine mounted high on the airframe with the fuel filler low on the airframe. A disaster waiting to happen with a gasoline powered engine mounted low in the airframe. As a matter of policy, I wont do it ... period. Every choice involves tradeoffs.

No question. It is also important to remember that risk can be managed within limits. Humans have the capacity to make choices which reduce risk if they so choose. Time urgency (IOW, being in a hurry) is a key factor in a great many accidents in and out of the aviation world. I am often amazed by the choices people make to save a few seconds or minutes. No one is immune to this but some manage it more successfully than others. A key part of the risk management process is explicitly acknowledging, "This could happen to me on my next flight."

SAS: I agree, he had a "senior moment" and didn't stop and think about something he's beeing thinking about hundreds if not thousands of times before. Sad but silly waste of a life:ugh:..................

Saw a fellow engineer once stand up on the cockpit window ledge of a Wessex 60 in Nigeria, luckily he was rather short but the sight of his hair being whipped up by the rotor blades as they passed within inches of his cranium was blood chilling, he did not realize what he had done until we told him, I have never seen someone go that shade of white that quick!!

s

Well..at age 69..
 

.. he'd have probably prefered this ending rather than being spoon-fed and bed-bathed in an old folks' home.. He gets kudos from me for still being at it at such an age. RIP old buddy.

From a personal point of view though, crew-change and refuelling with rotors turning? Not for me.. not ever.. but everyone to their own. We make our decisions and live with the consequences.

On a different point, very best wishes to the many fine professionals (plane and rotor) who enriched my life during the last 40+ years... bless you all, I'm done now but it was a great party:ok:

TP

Rotors turning....engines burning.....pumped untold thousands of gallons of Jet Fuel into helicopters....loaded lots of passengers and freight....and never a problem in forty years of doing it.

Jet Fuel? No probs.

AvGas? No thanks.

SAS

A blast from the past from boring old phart!!

When I did my first solo on type on the Whirlwind Mk 7 at Predannack airfield in Cornwall my instructor - who was wearing the latest and flashiest whiter than white bone dome,( no inner), climbed out of the left hand seat and as he stood there asked me if I was happy to go on my own. I turned towards him and said yes - fine - but as I turned I moved the stick to the left and the rotor hit him a glancing blow on the top of his helmet!

He had to return the bonedome to the safety equipment section and somehow explain how it was somewhat cracked on the top. He managed that somehow and I managed a couple of circuits without hitting anything else.

Happy days.....................:))

Back in the 80s, a US Army Cobra crew landed on a range in Germany. One of the crew got out, rotors running, walked around the aircraft, and managed to walk into the tail rotor. Just a moments inattention.

In the 90s, a passenger got out of a British Army Lynx, and walked straight into the spinning tail rotor. Never trust a passenger.

It's an Emstrom 280. Those blades droop pretty low when spooling down. Probably not a TR strike - the stinger keeps you aware of the sweep of the TR.

I agree with several posters on this: Don't refuel AVGAS/Piston/high-tank/low-engine aircraft while running! Not an issue for Jet-fuel/turbine/low-tank/high-engine commercial operations.

I've never personally seen passenger transport operations where turbine engines are stopped to unload or load passengers. However in these cases passengers are always briefed to approach/depart the aircraft from the front, and are escorted.

Right. Avgas is way more dangerous especially with the R44 engine/tank set up.

Don't see any problem hot refueling either.

bas lad....you sure seem to have a knack for hitting things!:E

As a neophyte Army Student Pilot....I once decided to whip some frost off the upper part of the canopy of my Mattel Messerschmidt (Hughes TH-55A).....and while reaching for that bit right in the middle....I lost the Knob that controlled the Visor on my Helmet.:uhoh:

Not much noise....or impact.....but it did make for some confusion when trying to lower the visor later in the flight. A few inches lower and I would have been cheated out of a long career flying helicopters too.:rolleyes:

While I'm not exactly a young pup myself, I remember in my first year of flying an Engineer nearing retirement telling me that's it's typically old engineers that walked into tail rotors, as they had grown overly comfortable with the risk, as opposed to those who have not lost that heightened sense of awareness when walking around the noisy spinning contraptions. I'm not aware of any stats to back up the claim but it makes sense.