Cable Car Crash Pilot is Charged
 

Here is a link from the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4827304.stm

Cable Car Accident - Helicopter Pilot Convicted
 

Vienna: A pilot whose helicopter dropped heavy equipment onto a ski lift in Austria last year, killing nine Germans, was yesterday convicted of criminal negligence and sentenced to 15 months in prison.

A court in the alpine city of Innsbruck delivered the verdict against Markus Jaeger, 36, who had pleaded innocent to two counts for causing public endangerment and bodily harm. Six children aged 12 to 14 and three adults were killed on September 5 near the popular resort of Soelden, about 480km west of Vienna.

Jaeger had faced up to five years in prison.

He told the court earlier yesterday he was "very, very sorry about what happened", but denied that he may have pushed a wrong button by mistake, allowing a mechanical hook beneath the helicopter to release a tub weighing nearly 700kg used to transport concrete.

The tub hit the cable car below, sending one of its gondolas plunging 30 metres onto a rocky mountainside. Other victims were catapulted out of two other gondolas. Seven people survived their injuries.

Jaeger, who worked for a helicopter company based in Salzburg, said he had seen no problem with his chosen flying route, which brought him over the ski lift.
"It was, from my point of view, the best possible route," Jaeger testified. All other routes would have been "unthinkable" because there were people everywhere on the slopes and paths, he said.

Some 30 relatives of the victims, some dressed in black mourning clothes, were present for yesterday's trial, which lasted only a few hours.

http://www.gulfnews.com/world/Austria/10048822.html

As has already been said, "Hindsight..." And all because of a faulty switch.:ugh:
15 months for choosing the wrong flight path is too much. That the faulty switch and the flight path accidentally killed nine people isn't much. He's almost lucky, I hope the jails over there aren't too bad.

I'm not sure what punishing the pilot by sending him to jail for 15 months is meant to achieve.
Even if he did make an error of judgement, it was just that - an error of judgement, a mistake.
Tragic for everyone concerned, including the pilot and his family.

I agree with you entirely Heliport. Sending the Pilot to prison neither remedies the outcome, nor resolves the issues that created the circumstance that led to this disaster.

Early on in this discussion, a number of posters stated that there was nothing in the relevant local laws that restricted this type of operation, nor was anything wrong with performing external load missions of this type over areas being used actively by the general public. Do they still hold that view?

There are many reasons why the load could detach itself from the aircraft, none of them requiring the pilot to push the button. Ask anyone in the external load business this, and they will give you all kinds of stories about loads simply detaching themselves for a variety of reasons. This is precisely why flying external loads over active roads, habited buildings and anywhere else the public, or your employee, might be should be a completely unacceptable practice.

The real cause of this was the local helicopter industry that found this to be an entirely acceptable practice, caused by competitive commercial pressures, according to some of them, and an operator that would allow his employees to work in this way.

I hope that the entire regional helicopter industry pays attention to this, and learns a lesson from it, if indeed they do (did) promote this type of activity and the regulatory authorities maybe review the operating limitations required for this type of operation. You may still not eliminate every accident, but you have at least removed one part of a very easily identifiable and remedied risk that exists with external load operations.

Seems that not much has changed! :eek:

Helicopter drops a ton of timber on a house in Austria - Monsters and Critics

Another slingload accident in Austria
 

New sling load accident in Austria. Pictures below quoted article.

http://static2.orf.at/vietnam2/image...aus_gr_big.jpg

http://static2.orf.at/vietnam2/image...us_gr2_big.jpg

http://static2.orf.at/vietnam2/image...chseil_big.jpg

More pictures (slideshow) here:
tt.com - Tirol &raquo Hubschraubertransport: Last stürzte in Oetz auf Jausenstation

AGAIN!!!
 

Seems like Santa came early this year and delivered a ton of presents:E

You cannot fault the accuracy.....square in the middle of the target.

You reckon this is a Terrorist event....some splinter group that has a problem with Austrians?

Bl**dy Hell..
 

...for a very modest-sized operator, that's one h*ll of a safety record. OK slung-loads and mountainous country add to life's challenges ...but even so...

cheers for now bm:=

Cr*p journalism as usual... no timber to be seen anywhere... those are breeze-blocks for heaven's sake!

Tyrolean freedom fighters
 

Ha, splinter group?!? Call them Tyrolebans:E with the intent to splinter away from the rest of Austria...

Unbelievable indeed!

There are only a handful of houses on that hillside, what are the odds of hitting one square centered... :D

Oetzerberg 50 6433 Oetz - Google Maps

...good news that nobody got hurt though.


..isn't the founder of Knaus Helicopter german? :E

Died in a helicopter accident in 1997. His second helicopter accident...

At least he wasn't flying a Plank ! Maybe it wooden fly right ! How may "knots" was the timber flying at etc etc etc etc

Q: Why was only one roof hit ?
A: It was tracking from one roof to another in case he had a cable failure.:}

No, not German but Austrian but then what the heck is the difference anyway... Johann Knaus died some years ago when he flew his Alouette into an antenna on a hilltop, and cartwheeled down the slope. However, he survived another horrific accident in 1991 when the engine conked out 30 seconds after take-off in mountainous terrain. Reason for that was water in the fuel.

Blimey..isn't that like saying Welsh....English same difference!
I'd be careful about calling an Austrian a German!

I thought Austrians and Germans were the same....just the Austrians speak German two octaves higher than the Germans.

I'd say the fellow was a few hundred blocks shy of a load!

SASless,
German and Austrians are the same??? Not even close my friend!!! And for the octaves, it really depends on from which part in Austria :-)

In over 1500 hrs of longline work I lost four loads. Three do to equipment failures and the other one do to an inadequate job hooking it up. One more reason not to overfly property, person, … on the ground.

sherpa: looks like you're missing the sarkasm my friend! :=
(BTW: as a german I found that "octaves" comparison quite cool to be honest! ;))