Helicopter Versus Bear
 

Bear falls to its death during flight to Thai sanctuary | Daily Mail Online

OK, was in the mail online...but, shows the poor bear was doomed by finger pointing incompetence. :ugh:

I guess "Gus" blew the hatch. Happens, lots of buttons on helicopter controls.

Unavoidable?

No way.
Either it was:
Poor rigging selection (roll out)
Poor maintenance on the release cables or wiring (un-commanded opening)
or a non-proficient or five thumbed pilot, pushed wrong button or inadvertently bumped the button.
Either way, someone was incompetent and it was entirely avoidable.

subject
 

They should have used the road transfer method, like they usually do!

I spent 3 years living there and came across these bears many a time...they are so easy to tame, but would quickly become a pain in the butt if you let them. The local guys would entice them into the back of a cage truck, drive them back into the forest and release them...how easy is that.

RIP, you poor bugger.

The photo of the bear wrapped in a net sitting under the tail makes the hair on the back of neck stand up. The only thing that should be under the tail of a helicopter is your swag(Australian version of a bed roll) so you have something to hang the mosquito net from. I would have had the load out the front of the machine so I could see it & minimises the chance of getting the skids hook on lift off.
Tragic outcome for the bear, hopefully the discussion here will help prevent any of us having a similar incident. I had an Uncommanded release of an empty longline once on a hired machine, the manual release cable wasn't adjusted properly. I hadn't thought to manually move the hook through its range of movement during preflight & ensure the cable didn't activate the mechanism, but I certainly check that regularly now! The machine had been maintained by a eurocopter dealer & had all the required checks signed off. Never trust anyone was my lesson, trust but verify.

Slung a few dead Black Bears in my time, normally forest fires and the bear has to be shot due to being a nuisance. Rope em up, attach to longline, altitude and release load....simples. Mind you about twenty years ago on a fire in Alberta was dispatched to do a bear disposal. Called it in on FM to dispatch was doing the sky diving Yogi. Young medic monitoring freqs heard the call and kicked off big time....she didn't realise it had already had a dose of .303, thought we were punching live bears off....:ugh:

Lost a couple of loads in over 10,000hrs longline. First one a survey mag bird due to manual release incorrectly rigged....did a nose dive into a snow drift and was undamaged. Second one due a faulty choker was a 2300lb drill engine. Engine was scrapped it released between set ups in the Belcher Islands, bouncing bomb it was.....cant imagine the carnage if it had let go overhead the rig......:eek:

The incidents I have been involved with bears is live ones always go in a cage inside the net, dead ones just in the net.

Punched off a full bambi bucket once---pure finger trouble, was all me, cost me copious amounts of beers...... Never lost a load inadvertently....

Appaling,
My pour brother!
It shows you cannot lay back and have a snooze while somebody arranges transport for you.
I told him many times before:
You better do it yourselves!

Cheers Self Loading Bear

Pulled a couple of cows out of ravines in Austria.
They are fine as long as you're high enough, but low level the get very agitated.
That makes some unusual movements.
Maybe the driver was a bit scared and, ByBy Bear.

Pull! :E:E:E:E