Tourist's finger partially amputated by helicopter rotor

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FD2
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Tourist's finger partially amputated by helicopter rotor

#1 Post by FD2 » Mon Sep 28, 2020 5:08 am

A tourist who took a sightseeing trip to a glacier on the West Coast had one of her fingers partially amputated and other fingers crushed while getting into a helicopter with moving rotors.

It is alleged the woman waved as she was getting back into the helicopter to fly back from the glacier. Her hand was struck by the moving rotor of the helicopter, which partially amputated the middle finger on her right hand.

The incident was captured in footage taken by other passengers.


The curse of waving for that vital photo opportunity as you stand in the doorway. :-bd I wondered how she'd got her hand high enough to contact the main rotor blades until I read about that wave. :-o I suppose they should have briefed her through an interpreter not to stick her hand into the rotor disc. [-X

Chasing the tourist dollar has led to some awful unnecessary deaths around the world but there will always be someone who does something completely unexpected.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/ ... pter-rotor

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Re: Tourist's finger partially amputated by helicopter rotor

#2 Post by ian16th » Mon Sep 28, 2020 9:22 am

If she had been jumping with joy, she might have had a partial cranium amputation!
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Re: Tourist's finger partially amputated by helicopter rotor

#3 Post by Boac » Mon Sep 28, 2020 9:23 am

Come on! Who has NOT tried to stop a ceiling fan with one's head on a Friday night?

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Re: Tourist's finger partially amputated by helicopter rotor

#4 Post by k3k3 » Mon Sep 28, 2020 9:26 am

I once stopped a woman walking into a tail rotor as she got out of a Jet Ranger, she was not happy that I had grabbed her until I pointed to the rotor, than she went white and fainted.

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Re: Tourist's finger partially amputated by helicopter rotor

#5 Post by ian16th » Mon Sep 28, 2020 9:31 am

Boac wrote:
Mon Sep 28, 2020 9:23 am
Come on! Who has NOT tried to stop a ceiling fan with one's head on a Friday night?
Rock Apes throwing empty beer cans to see how far the fans can 'bat' them were a hazard at Akrotiri NAAFI.

Thinking on it, Rocks drinking, were a hazard!
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Re: Tourist's finger partially amputated by helicopter rotor

#6 Post by FD2 » Mon Sep 28, 2020 10:20 am

Come on! Who has NOT tried to stop a ceiling fan with one's head on a Friday night?

It was the party trick of a chum until he got too pissed and didn't realise the fan speed setting was on 'High' - he was only out for about 30 seconds but the noise when his head hit the fan was amazing - a sort of B-R-R-R like a pneumatic drill. 8-}

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Re: Tourist's finger partially amputated by helicopter rotor

#7 Post by FD2 » Mon Sep 28, 2020 10:25 am

No more signalling to other drivers with that hand now...

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Re: Tourist's finger partially amputated by helicopter rotor

#8 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Mon Sep 28, 2020 5:15 pm

Boac wrote:
Mon Sep 28, 2020 9:23 am
Come on! Who has NOT tried to stop a ceiling fan with one's head on a Friday night?

So that pain in the bonce wasn't a hangover after all! ;)))

For every rotor or propellor there is a passenger waiting to walk into it!
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Re: Tourist's finger partially amputated by helicopter rotor

#9 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Mon Sep 28, 2020 5:37 pm

FD2 wrote:
Mon Sep 28, 2020 10:20 am
Come on! Who has NOT tried to stop a ceiling fan with one's head on a Friday night?

It was the party trick of a chum until he got too pissed and didn't realise the fan speed setting was on 'High' - he was only out for about 30 seconds but the noise when his head hit the fan was amazing - a sort of B-R-R-R like a pneumatic drill. 8-}
It is a pity we don't have a resident cartoonist here. That evocative description needs to be drawn... =))
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Re: Tourist's finger partially amputated by helicopter rotor

#10 Post by Pontius Navigator » Mon Sep 28, 2020 6:53 pm

BM may know but I believe someone waked through a Shackleton's prop arc and survived.

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Re: Tourist's finger partially amputated by helicopter rotor

#11 Post by Boac » Mon Sep 28, 2020 7:06 pm

That would take some skill!!

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Re: Tourist's finger partially amputated by helicopter rotor

#12 Post by ian16th » Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:27 pm

With the contra-rotating propellers, I'd have thought it impossible.
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Re: Tourist's finger partially amputated by helicopter rotor

#13 Post by G-CPTN » Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:28 pm

ian16th wrote:
Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:27 pm
With the contra-rotating propellers, I'd have thought it impossible.
+1

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Re: Tourist's finger partially amputated by helicopter rotor

#14 Post by FD2 » Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:50 pm

Might have given him a good short back and sides at the least.

More seriously a friend was flying in the bush in Canada and a passenger climbed out of his Jetranger and despite the briefing walked straight around the rear and into the tail rotor. He lived but with a rearranged head. That came back to me when I read k3k3 ‘s post. :-o

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Re: Tourist's finger partially amputated by helicopter rotor

#15 Post by CharlieOneSix » Mon Sep 28, 2020 10:00 pm

FD2 may remember the incident when, having left BCAL Helicopters, one of our young well-heeled Captains set up his own Company in Aberdeenshire and saw one of his passengers walk into the tail rotor of a JetRanger - with fatal results.

Many years ago there was a terrible incident at Battersea Heliport - so long ago I can't recall the exact circumstances - but a JetRanger or Squirrel was ground running and something happened which caused the helicopter to yaw violently. It took the legs off the marshaller standing at the front of the helicopter.
EDIT: A little brain cell says this was G-GINA, the late Tommy Sopwith's Squirrel, the registration relating to Gina Hawthorn, his wife and a former Olympic skier. On a separate occasion Tommy Sopwith lost part of a finger whilst gesticulating under the main rotor of a helicopter! Yes, he was the son of Thomas Sopwith who founded the Sopwith Aviation Company.

The S76 helicopter has main rotor blades which dip dangerously low at the front whilst on the ground and you never, ever, approach it directly from the front. When the type was relatively new in 1980 another pilot and I were flying one which landed at night at Hobby Airport, Houston, to refuel. We taxied towards the pumps and when he finished marshalling the marshaller approached us directly from the front of the helicopter - and being night time he obviously didn't notice the main rotor. If the other pilot, who was the handling pilot, had not reacted really quickly and applied excessive aft cyclic the marshaller could well have lost his head.
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Re: Tourist's finger partially amputated by helicopter rotor

#16 Post by FD2 » Tue Sep 29, 2020 5:12 am

I don't recall the incident C16 - was that D.A.'s company? He turned up at Bristow, Norwich about 2003 for some instrument training - I don't recollect what had happened to his company. I did a large portion of his line training just before I left BCal.

The naturally low rotor disc at the front was solved in Bristow (don't know about the other companies) by a cyclic guard modification. A spring loaded bar was pulled up in front of the cyclic during rotors running turn rounds which kept the disc back and was one of the last things to do, when pushed back under the console, prior to taxi or take off. If inadvertently left up at take off the force of forward cyclic movement caused it to retract.

It brought back an accident in 1992 when an S76 was running on a small ship deck in the North Sea. I think the handling co-pilot thought they were going backwards over the side when the ship rolled and instinctively pushed the cyclic forward, which decapitated the HLO who was standing about 10.30 or 11.00 o'clock to the pilots. It may have been that accident which prompted the cyclic guard but I don't think it was mandatory unless the oil companies specified it. I see from the table that the Dauphin was also dangerous on deck.


Oil & Gas UK extract.png

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Re: Tourist's finger partially amputated by helicopter rotor

#17 Post by CharlieOneSix » Tue Sep 29, 2020 12:10 pm

FD2 wrote:
Tue Sep 29, 2020 5:12 am
I don't recall the incident C16 - was that D.A.'s company? .......
No, it was JC's and he set up near Kintore - but maybe he was joined in it by DA as they were good friends - too long ago for my brain cells! DA was the nephew of JP who joined the RN with me and later set up PLM in Inverness in the 70's.

The cyclic bar on the S76 is something I hadn't heard of but I was only on the type for a year before being shunted off to introduce the 214ST. When you look at the stats there have been some awful human/rotor accidents.

Re tail rotor incidents, some will disagree with the following procedure and say I should have shut down but anyway.....

We had the Plessey contract when I was on JetRangers and that involved picking up senior managers/board members from either their houses or the local airfield and taking them to Plessey factory sites and in reverse. Most were regulars and were well aware of the dangers of tail rotors. One day I had a new pax and was delivering him from a factory site to Stapleford Tawney airfield. It was a wet day and it had been raining for some hours. He had an overnight bag in the boot on the left side of the fuselage - I was in the right hand seat, pax in left hand seat behind me - and before take off I briefed him that after landing I would come round and undo his door and the boot door. Having landed on grass, as usual I positioned the helicopter so the natural exit line for the pax to the airfield buildings would be at roughly ninety degrees to the helicopter heading thereby keeping the tail rotor out of the way.

This is where some will disagree.......time was tight on the Plessey job and it was multi sector and difficult to keep to timings. After landing, rather than shut down I wound the throttle back to idle, clamped the control frictions and turned the hydraulics off. Then I nipped round the front of the helicopter and to my horror saw that the guy had exited on his own, had got his bag out of the boot and for some unknown reason was about to duck under the horizontal stabiliser and walk straight into the tail rotor. Fortunately I managed to grab him but we both fell into the muddy grass. He was mighty hacked off until I gesticulated at the tail rotor and he toddled off, leaving me to continue with the remainder of the day's tasks with a uniform covered in mud.

I received a telephoned apology message later - the pax had been going in a direct line to his parked car. Sometimes you just can't win.
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Re: Tourist's finger partially amputated by helicopter rotor

#18 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Tue Sep 29, 2020 1:52 pm

This young lady walked directly into a light aircraft's propellor!



Larry King strikes me as an insensitive dick but the young lady has adjusted well to her life changing injuries including the loss of an eye.

Perhaps all potential passengers should be forced to watch a safety video at least to warn them of the risk of having to meet people like Mr King if they survive their encounter with rotors and props.
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Re: Tourist's finger partially amputated by helicopter rotor

#19 Post by FD2 » Tue Sep 29, 2020 6:59 pm

I guess it goes to show that passengers can behave in silly and unexpected ways in the vicinity of aircraft, especially running ones. Maybe it's the excitement of the occasion or over-familiarity in the case of C16's Plessey passenger. A short attention span and retention of information won't help. Even when they nod and say they understand and when it flies in the face of common sense like the West Coast glacier passenger waving for a photo op. One could only try one's best to keep them safe! [-X

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Re: Tourist's finger partially amputated by helicopter rotor

#20 Post by bob2s » Tue Sep 29, 2020 10:05 pm

After working for 55 years with helicopters, I had to brief myself every time I was around fixed wing NOT to walk foreward when working around them with engine running.

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