Yet Another Fatal Wirestrike
 

This time in Louisiana.

Update on Bell 407 wirestrike near New Orleans

Bell 406, eh.... :suspect::ugh:

Another skud running failure. Sad.

The news reports would suggest that weather (low cloud/vis) was a factor, suggesting that "fatal wirestrike" is likely to be secondary to P1's decisions on the weather.

So should the title of this thread be "Fatal decision on weather"?

Choosing to fly in poor conditions isn’t of itself fatal.
It’s the poor judgment a couple of decisions later, to continue, which decides the outcome.
If you want to get into semantics, a fatal accident is rarely the first attempt in similar conditions, just the first time they failed to get away with it.
So, you could argue the decision happened long before that day, if statistics are anything to go by.

For reference, here are the wires without the fog.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....e7870199fa.png

Chilling pictures here:

https://www.wafb.com/2021/12/15/heli...w-photos-show/

Who in their right mind would want to bomb along at speed, low-level, in those conditions.
That is darwin award material.

https://fb.watch/9X7D85CVeJ/

212, it almost looks like the pilot is coming out of the door in the last 100' or so, any ideas of what it might be?

Some highlights from the article....

--- He was a Marine for 13 years, a volunteer firefighter, an Eagle Scout and even worked for the coroner’s office.
--- Paramedic for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in Baton Rouge for just over four years.
--- His dedication to safety leaves them wondering how this could have happened.
--- “We are trying to wrap our minds around it because he was the king of safety,” said Harrison.
--- Flight instructor ... owned a flight school
--- Member of the FAA safety team

Denham Springs pilot killed in helicopter crash remembered as clever, joke-loving husband, father | Crime/Police | nola.com

Sounds like one of those "Do as I say Not As I Do"

Could be that but it also could be a case of (perceived) commercial pressure.

Over 10 years ago a good friend of mine sadly died while flying in the Gulf of Mexico, just before Christmas as well, and "inadvertent IMC" was a big contributor in his accident. I considered him to be a very safety conscious pilot and just like some reactions in the article linked above by Arnie Madsen I found it hard to understand why he went flying that day seeing how safety focused & cautious he normally was.
It was only after his funeral I found out the real reason he went flying there, while taking time off from his full time job, was because of financial reasons. I'm pretty sure that played to a great degree in his decision making process and got him into this situation which sadly cost him his and his passengers lives.

I did read elsewhere that he was ejected, but I cannot clearly discern what is coming off in the video - although it does look like a door

.

As well as removing the rotor and gearbox the wires appear to have cut thru the cabin about waist or chest height.

.

Yes, it did appear in the video that there was not much left of the cabin after the wire strike :(

As with so many accidents, we will never know...*can* never know how a pilot that people referred to as "the king of safety" ended up in such a situation. There is no logical explanation for it - and it makes no sense at all. If we look back at accidents that have occurred, we are often inclined to scratch our heads and go, "...How...?" How many other "kings of safety" have we known who've come to their premature demise in an unexplainable pilot-error accident?

In the end, all we can say is that the 407 pilot was human and we humans are prone to making mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes kill us. Fate? Wrong place/wrong time? Just unlucky? Who knows. Have I made such mistakes? Oh yeah! More times than I can count, if I'm being honest. Looking back...I mean...there must be a kind and generous God somewhere for me to still be alive. And I'm not just talking about flying; I ride motorcycles too and over the years have had some *extremely* close calls. Who's to say who lives and who dies? It's sad when things like this happen. All we can do is redouble our resolve to not deliberately put ourselves in situations like that in the future...and then hope we can stick to it.

There is also the possibility that the pilot wasn't all that into safety after all and may have been taking chances. Seen it before. I don't have to "redouble my resolve" not to fly low level in horrible visibility.

To me, we saw the last 1.5 seconds of a brother's life. I hope we can learn what we can from what we saw. Remember the old adage... "Learn from the mistakes of others... we don't have enough time to make them all ourselves".... RIP, brother

So I guess that means that you'll never fly a helicopter ever again. I'm personally happy about that, and I'd wager that the rest of the industry is too.