GOM pilots overworked?
 

Regis#: 92MT Make/Model: B206 Description: BELL 206B HELICOPTER
Date: 05/31/2006 Time: 1627

Event Type: Accident Highest Injury: Fatal Mid Air: N Missing: N
Damage: None

LOCATION
City: OFFSHORE PLATFORM State: Country: US

DESCRIPTION
PILOT WAS FOUND DECEASED AT THE CONTROLS WHILE IT WAS RUNNING ON AN
OFFSHORE PLAATFORM, NO PAXS ON BOARD.

That's the second time in recent memory we've had a pilot keel over at the controls at PHI. I know my doctor just kind of pencilwhips my annual medical. Say ahhhh, a knock on the knees and a perfunctory listen through his stethoscope and off I go for another year. Shouldn't we either do a better job of listening to our bodies ourselves, or insist on a more thorough checkup?

Very sad to hear, but from the company's point of view - probably the perfect employee! Loyal to the last breath and never collected his pension or loss of licence insurance. :(

My AME (Dewi Morgan, for those that know him) told me the medical I had a few weeks ago was to make sure I "didn't fail catasrophically in the next 6 months".

At least I know I've got that long !

We're all waiting anxiously to hear the repercussions of this most unfortunate event. Will it be implementation of age limits, a requirement for two pilots in every cockpit, more frequent medicals, or checkups with the company doctor in addition to the FAA physical? How about quarterly physical fitness tests - Yikes!!

We work in a part of the country where health and fitness are foreign to the culture. If you make much of an effort to exercise or eat a healthy diet you become the object of ridicule. You can practice a healthy lifestyle here, but they don't make it easy for you.

-Stan-

Stan,

If they were to throw in an age restriction of say...age 60 for single pilot operations....how many pilots would that remove from the the big three operators alone? Any guesses?

Nigeria has the 120 year rule I think it is...combined age of crew cannot exceed 120, and over 60 guys have to do a stress test on the threadmill one time a year (someone in Nigeria could confirm this.).

SASless,

The effect of an age 60 rule on the small ship community, while severe for the pilots, probably wouldn't be too bad from the company's point of view. The small ship jobs are somewhat easier to fill with relatively newer personnel, and the training could all be done in-house. I'm reluctant to hazard a guess as to how many pilots this would actually affect, but I'm certain the number would be significant.

On the other hand, many of the key positions in the medium and heavy ship communities are filled by guys who are within spitting distance of age 60 if not past it. These positions require extensive qualifications and experience. Much of the training is conducted outside the company and is pretty expensive. When these guys leave they won't be easily or inexpensively replaced.

Then again, for a variety of reasons, few pilots work here past age 62. So we're only talking about a difference of two years between the practical limit and an arbitrarily mandated one.

-Stan-

Another Pilot with Heart Problems
 

BRIGHAM CITY, Utah — A pilot suffering a heart attack made an emergency landing on a highway, saving his three passengers shortly before he died.
Jack Francis, 61, president of Francis Trucking in Brigham City, took off from Jackpot, Nev., and was headed home with his wife and another couple when he suffered a heart attack Sunday morning, Utah Highway Patrol spokesman Derek Jensen said.

He landed the single-engine Cessna 185 on Utah 30 near Park Valley and was taken to Bear River Hospital in Tremonton, where he died, Jensen said.

The plane went off the highway and hit a fence before coming to a stop, but the passengers were not injured.

"He basically saved these other three peoples' lives by landing the plane on the highway,'' Jensen said.

It is not even close to possible, with current technology, to prevent unexpected heart attacks. They happen, and there is no known method to predict all heart attacks. Even if you limit the maximum age for commercial flying to 30, there will still be a few who sneak through and still have a heart attack. You can't prevent all engine failures, or MR blade failures, either. Life is a dangerous proposition, and nobody gets out alive.

I was told, and I believe it is true, that a pilot dropped stone dead outside the 'Beehive' at Gatwick with his new Class I medical in his pocket, having just passed his exam.

Too, I remember this one character talking quite coolly about how, 'Sigh...', it was time to start taking the blood-pressure pills again because his medical was coming up. His friend the Company doctor had given them to him so that he could keep his job as a pilot. Otherwise I guess he would have had to stop smoking and boozing and lose about 30 kilos of top-quality Dutch fat and who would want to have to go to all that trouble?

What a shame Chuks....dropping dead outside the Beehive. Shame it wasn't contagious and he could have started a pandemic inside the Beehive.;)