Tail Rotor Accident - Poor Supervision of Pax

[FD2]

A young British man dies as a result of poor passenger supervision in Greece:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... reece.html

[Rwy in Sight]

I am not sure it is going to earn me in popularity, but a lot of civilian helicopters are flown by ex-military pilots who got out of the service. Very often they just not care, they only want to get a job. Last week or 10 days ago, such a pilot decided to take off in a downwind path and predictably crashed (the investigation is on going but it shows a mentality). Similarly an ex-army pilot flew into some cables back in 2019 who ignored them and company procedures were not followed.

[Ex-Ascot]

RiS would know better than most. I do not know if it is still the case but the military do chopper medical evacuations and used to keep crashing at night. The result of which is that you can't get aeromeded off a small Greek island at night now.

If he was doing a hot turn around surely there should have been ground handling to guide the passengers.

The other point is, was he blind or drunk?

[FD2]

Not long ago there was a case of a female Chinese tourist who decided to pose as she was standing in the doorway, raised her hand and lost a finger or two to the main rotor blades. I knew a pilot who flew in remote areas of Canada years ago and had the same problem of a passenger who climbed out and walked into the tail rotor. It's not confined to any particular country and there are cowboy pilots everywhere, but passengers must be supervised at all times to stop them doing really stupid things like this, even when they have been briefed and supposedly read the safety information card (if supplied!).

[TheGreenAnger]

I was discussing fenestron tail rotors and their non linear relationship between the application of pedal input and the resulting thrust, with a pilot who I respect recently, and we also canvassed their safety pro's and con's vis vis a normal tail rotor. Truth is people are always likely to walk into props or rotors and it is not always just the naive passenger who gets caught out. My friend suggested a protocol that ensures rotors/props stopped before embarking or disembarking passengers wherever possible, always preceded by a pilot brief and warning before embarking and then again just before landing. Wherever hot drops are required. the use of a ground safety coordinator should be the norm wherever possible!

[izod tester]

Since the disembarkation was with rotors running, the pilot was in no position to supervise the passengers. Is there an element of poor design? Whilst some helicopters have doors both sides, do those with a single side door have that door on the same side as the tail rotor? It would take a determined candidate for a Darwin award to duck under the rear fuselage to get to the tail rotor.

[Ex-Ascot]

There was this tragic accident which happened close to us when we used to live in the UK. I didn't realise that he had killed himself.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ffice.html

[CharlieOneSix]

FD2 may remember JC who left BCAL Helicopters and set up his own helicopter company. One of his passengers walked into a JetRanger tail rotor despite having had a thorough briefing.

Ferranti Helicopters had the Plessey contract for many years and this involved flying senior managers around their sites. On a wet dreary day I landed at Stapleford Tawney airfield to drop off one Plessey passenger. It was a JetRanger and an intense multi-sector operation. To the horror of some pilots we used to wind the throttle back to ground idle, put on full cyclic and collective friction, and leap out to open the rear door to guide the passenger safely away. On this day, in spite of him being briefed immediately prior to landing, as I walked round the nose of the helicopter the passenger had opened his door and for some unknown reason walked towards the tail rotor instead of the airport buildings. He was ducking under the horizontal stabiliser and I had no choice but to grab him and we both fell in a heap on the muddy grass. He was initially furious and didn't seem to appreciate he was about to be killed.

[TheGreenAnger]

With respect to the fixed wing propellor there was the sad Scruggs accident.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lauren-s ... %20reports.

She survived but had to undertake reconstructive surgery.

[FD2]

Ultimate safety would be rotors stopped before boarding or exiting for public transport, or ground crew always supervising but that's unlikely to happen. The Chinese tourist would probably still have done the pointy pose even if she had someone standing supervising beside her.

One modern obsession seems to have caused the Greek accident - bloody selfie taking according to the Mail. Rich or poor you've still got to get just the right....pose...and....position...to upload to your social media account...that's nearly it...back a bit...brrrr....thud. What a waste.

'Lessons will be learnt' for a month or two and then forgotten again.

[TheGreenAnger]

More detail has emerged about the poor young chap who was killed, he comes from Sutton Valence just up the road from Headcorn. It appears he walked to the back of the aircraft to take a photograph (I see FD2 got there before me). Ones feels for him and his family (particularly his sister who was also a passenger on the aircraft that killed him).

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 31326.html

I also feel for the pilot involved. One can only learn from others' sad travails.

[OFSO]

Whenever I'm round big noisy nasty machines I take care. Don't care what they are, idiots abound. Ryanair 738s on small airports where passengers dismount from both ends and ground staff put a tape in front of the engine to keep people away. I've seen passengers ducking under that to save a couple of metres walk. Walking round a steam engine blowing off. Unpredictable. Dangling legs over the side of ferry about to berth. RF from a six killowatt transmitter. Big lurking thing that looked as if it wanted to get you. Perhaps the worst, walking round a pipe-spinning mill. Behave as if death was out to get you, because if you don't, it will.

[Woody]

A sad story, known to anyone who has been involved at Speke

https://www.a-e-g.org.uk/the-ghost-of-speke.html

[PHXPhlyer]

Money don't fix stupid!

PP

[G~Man]

Since the disembarkation was with rotors running, the pilot was in no position to supervise the passengers. Is there an element of poor design? Whilst some helicopters have doors both sides, do those with a single side door have that door on the same side as the tail rotor? It would take a determined candidate for a Darwin award to duck under the rear fuselage to get to the tail rotor.

Most helicopters have doors on both sides.

I work part time for an organization that hot loads and unloads, and hot refuels all day long. We have ground crew who escort all passengers to/from the helicopter. Also all pax are required to watch a safety brief prior to going anywhere near the aircraft. This is our brief:

[TheGreenAnger]

Since the disembarkation was with rotors running, the pilot was in no position to supervise the passengers. Is there an element of poor design? Whilst some helicopters have doors both sides, do those with a single side door have that door on the same side as the tail rotor? It would take a determined candidate for a Darwin award to duck under the rear fuselage to get to the tail rotor.

Most helicopters have doors on both sides.

I work part time for an organization that hot loads and unloads, and hot refuels all day long. We have ground crew who escort all passengers to/from the helicopter. Also all pax are required to watch a safety brief prior to going anywhere near the aircraft. This is our brief:

I see where you are ahead of the pack in the briefing game here!

[G~Man]

I see where you are ahead of the pack in the briefing game here!

Indeedy.....

In terms of safety, our ground crew are all drug tested, and get trained and work for about 3 months before they ever work alone. They also do a "risk assessment" every day, just like pilots do their FRAT, (Flight Risk Assessment). We believe the biggest risk in the company is during loading/unloading of pax and it is taken very seriously---even though we have some "funnies" in the video aimed to hold attention....

[Woody]

By coincidence, today I had my chock, power and coneing refresher training, obviously we don’t do any hot loading/unloading, but someone noticed that I’ve only cleared for A320 and 747 ground power systems, so I got to practice on 777,787, A350 and A380, which are all different especially the A380 which needs 4 ground power inputs that have to be attached in a certain order

[Undried Plum]

I remember the most ghastly AAIB report.

A guy landed his Robbie on his lawn. Got out with rotors running, albeit donkey shut down. Little daughter ran to greet him; he lifted her up to the sky as he was accustomed to do. Clonk. I leave the rest of the story unsaid.

[FD2]

In terms of safety, our ground crew are all drug tested, and get trained and work for about 3 months before they ever work alone. They also do a "risk assessment" every day, just like pilots do their FRAT, (Flight Risk Assessment). We believe the biggest risk in the company is during loading/unloading of pax and it is taken very seriously---even though we have some "funnies" in the video aimed to hold attention....

I think you can't get more comprehensive than that G~Man - I hope someone doesn't slip through the net. Good safety video.

UP's sad tale reminds me of another - offshore this time - when an S76 landed on a support vessel. The pilot thought they were slipping backwards off the deck with a large wave and instinctively shoved the cyclic forward, decapitating the HLO. We can never cover all eventualities and many an accident was 'sorted' after the event.