R44-Cirrus Mid Air Collision Kills Three
 

Looks like the fixed wing's emergency parachute was deployed. The R44 was on a training flight, with the mid-air occurring at the airport.

BREAKING NEWS: 3 dead, 2 injured as plane & helicopter collide in mid-air over Frederick, Md. | WJLA.com

"Authorities said the three fatality victims were all aboard the helicopter, while the two injured men were in the plane.

Both of the injured were taken to the trauma center at Meritus Medical Center in Hagerstown, where a hospital spokesperson said they were treated and released."

Credit to the ballistic parachute system, I think.

Whilst I am normally a supporter of freedom to post views after fatalities, I am disturbed by that audio clip. If the screaming person in the background is one of the helicopter crew, I find this post to be inappropriate. It doesnt really help at all.
Even if we cant be sure, moderators, can that bit be edited out?

It might be from the Cirrus? Accidents are horrible, they should not not be sanitised.

Jayteeto - do you live in the stone age? What is your problem/concern with the clip? It is factual and as it happened.

R/W Parachutes
 

Any thoughts on parachutes for small helicopters? Possible trajectory out the tail cone? Have AHS engineers given consideration to this?

(Head banging emoticons and sarcasm not welcome).

Tower: 'I have three helicopter below you in the traffic pattern'
someone: 'I have two of them in sight...'
Tower: 'Maintain your altitude until turning base, cleared to land'

Questions: ('cleared to land' => controlled airport)
How can tower clear some to land who has three helicopters below him in the pattern, but did report seeing only two of them?
Especially w/o sequencing him "cleared to land as number three" or something?

To my ear this sounds like a sewere ATC mistake, or am I mixing something up?

(Is the one responding at 0:22 the one directed to stay at 1000ft until base? Is that the SR22?)

jayteeto
 

Sorry, to me it helped described the situation - one aircraft finals, "3 helicopters below" another aircraft "2 visual" and so I thought worthy of understand how things had occurred. It appears to be already edited.

Rotor Mop, is that what you have got? Insults? Get back in your cage, Rottweiler.
I have every right to make my call. If that is the helicopter, what do we gain by hearing it. WHAT non sanitised facts do we hear by (possibly) hearing a fellow aviator scream as he dies. Granted, it may not be him, that's why I ask the question. If it is, I am glad to be stoneage rather than a sanctimonious ghoul like you.
Is that ok for insults?
As a HEMS pilot, I deal with death and destruction regularly, maybe I should start videoing people as they die on us. You seem to like that sort of thing.......

I agree jayteeto, in this case Rotor K(M)op is an idiot.

Voando, please don't misunderstand me, I think that open frank discussion and even quotes from this tape are relevant to PPrune. I operate at an airfield that has dual circuits for FW and RW, maybe we should look at procedures after this accident??? AC often get close to each other, especially with cloudbase around circuit height forcing FW slightly lower.
My ONLY beef is the screaming on the recording. It may be someone in the tower reacting, then again it may not. I fail to see ANY SINGLE THING that we can learn from someone screaming, possibly as they crash. Frankly, it's sick.
Before anyone chips in, saying it is out there on the web for all to see, so is child porn and IS beheadings. Doesnt make it right..........

Reely340You're mixing up..... It is common over here to have helicopters operating below 500 ft in the traffic pattern but landing across on the crossing runway. They remain inside the FW traffic pattern at all times.

To give you an idea of what that looks like, here are the procedures for Long Beach, CA. You will see 6 pads on the diagram on Page 6. Pad 5 & 6 are rarely used, however the first 4 are used daily, with 4 helicopters operating at any given time. The traffic pattern remains tight between runways 25/7's. Airplanes will be doing right traffic on RWY 25R and left traffic on 25L with helos in the middle. The airlines then land and depart on rwy 30. Makes for a fun hour of training.

Procedures Here

jayteeto:

Agree, this sort of thing very often becomes a form of entertainment - youtube crash compilations spring to mind.

Woolf

Those that "like" that sort of video / audio content
will probably have already searched and found the clip on You Tube,
so why do we need it on here at all ?

Before the discussion degenerates even further,
I would just like to say "RIP" to those that were in the helicopter,
and offer my condolences to the family, friends and others
that have been affected by this tragedy.
( I find it strange that others don't seem to have thought it worthy to do so too ).

Coconutty.

The audio clip was played on the news here in the US, the screaming was from the fixed wing passenger who survived with barely a scratch.

Thanks for that, not a problem.... now that we know. Reduces my anger to thinking "a bit insensitive".
RIP guys

jayteeto, with all due respect, the clip is titled "ATC Audio Mid Air Collision at Frederick Municipal Airport". Does that not hint that there may be included elements that some may find disturbing? Does to me. You are quite entitled to you POV, just don't agree with it.

Article identifies those involved

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...c67_story.html

That's a harrowing audio clip, all right. (Once was enough for me!)

Kudos to the controller who seemed to be making a staunch effort to hold it together following that.

I hope she doesn't have too many nightmares.

Anybody have an idea as to whether there would likely have been radar tracks recorded in this area? I'd imagine there might well be. They would aid the investigation considerably.

Megan, no I dont think what you say. I am an ex military man who is definitely NOT over sensitive. I deal with blood and guts as my job and worry because I often dont even get bothered about extreme trauma. Its just some things 'cross the line'. A video of a crash may teach something, discussion certainly will help, but we gain nothing, zero, zilch by hearing that screaming. The rest? Yes. Edit that bit out and it shows the situation for all.
Am I right or wrong? Who knows, you certainly disagree, as do others. Thats your right. I just have a threshold before I complain, that threshold was passed. Now that we know it wasnt the heli crew, I feel better about it, but I think it was posted without that knowledge. The title doesnt tell the whole story