EC-135 crashes into ocean near Port Hedland off Western Australias Pilbara coast
 

Helicopter crashes into ocean near Port Hedland off WA's Pilbara coast - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

A helicopter carrying two people has crashed into the ocean off Western Australia's north coast.

The accident happened 30 kilometres north of Port Hedland about midnight.

An Australian Maritime Safety Authority spokesman said the helicopter — reported to be an EC-135 model — was heading out to a ship to pick up a marine pilot when it crashed.

The passenger has been recovered but a search continues for the pilot.

Seven aircraft and seven vessels are taking part in the search.

More to come.

Not good at all. Crashed last night around midnight according to some reports.

Is night MPT in Port Hedland a 2-pilot gig?

Apparently it was two pilots on a training flight not a MPT flight. Thoughts are with everyone at Aviator Group.

https://www.northwesttelegraph.com.a...-ng-b88774914z

If anyone knows the name of the pilot that is missing, please PM me.

KiwiNed the article says that they were on the way to pick up a marine pilot onboard a ship. It was that person who saw the helicopter ditch and alerted AMSAR.
I have heard that it was a normal flight but with a check captain onboard.

KP - You are probably correct. I just heard it was as training flight with a check & training guy plus pilot onboard and no one else so wrongly assumed it was not MPT.

maybe VH-ZGA? VH-ZGZ seems to be participating in the search.

https://www.flightradar24.com/ZGZ/10b7b454

Yep, ZGA.

Lude-og, if you are concerned about your countryman, he's not involved.

Normally done single pilot day and night, in this case Training Captain doing night line training

Sad.

Capt.

Some years ago we used to do that MPT flight in a basic 206 on fixed floats with no special equipment except for an adjustable large landing light off a Cessna. Single pilot day & night, biggest problem was when sea fog would roll in quickly & unexpectedly. The alternate inland was 200 nm plus! Fun days!:ok:

What's your point? You do know that there is a Pilot missing.

:-(
Trainingflights can be dangerous.
2016 a BK117 went down over the sea while conducting winch training.
Pilots didn´t recognize until to late :-(
https://www.bfu-web.de/DE/Publikatio...ublicationFile

Who provides helicopter SAR in that area?

Crab,

Australia is massive. We have cattle stations bigger than European countries. This might be difficult to believe, but in most of Australia, no one provides SAR.

Last recorded data point on fr24: 100FT, 22KTS
:(

All the companies played a role today Babcock,HNZ,CHC,Bristow and not to mention a sister ship of the one that went down along with a Chalenger 604.

Nescafe - so Australia is exempt from ICAO/IMO provision of SAR???

https://www.amsa.gov.au/safety-navig...-rescue-region

Try this page.

https://www.amsa.gov.au/safety-navigation/search-and-rescue/contracted-search-and-rescue-aircraft-and-equipment

Mainly tier 3 and 4 helicopters contracted to oil companies. Stand to be corrected but nearest tier 2 may be Perth. 700plus nm away.

No Crab, Australia is not exempt. However, in practical terms, due to having vast regions that are very sparsely populated, we don't have the same level of response capability in those areas as you might expect in most European countries. It will often take several hours to get assets on scene. This is not unique to Australia mind you.

For those of us who are linguistically challenged -https://www.bfu-web.de/EN/Publicatio...ublicationFile

Heliringer
The point I tried to make, obviously not very well, is that the Port Hedland job was a mickey mouse operation with not the best equipment available being used due to the cost. Now it has a modern twin & I expect a lot more training. It's a tragedy that for whatever reason a modern helicopter has gone down & a pilot is missing. During my 45 years of helicopter flying I've had to make numerous searches, so I'm fully aware of the possible tragic outcome of this accident.