Helicopter LOST in FOG then CRASHED in the water near JFK
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- Опубликовано: 19 апр 2024
- The pilot of the helicopter departed for a visual flight rules cross-country flight but returned to the airport shortly after takeoff upon encountering instrument meteorological conditions (IMC), which had been forecast. The pilot elected to depart again under special visual flight rules after hearing another pilot report indicating that the ceiling was between 800 and 1,000 ft. The helicopter was not equipped for flight in IMC.
About 12 minutes after takeoff, the pilot informed air traffic control that he intended to return to the departure airport after encountering IMC. Automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast data showed that, during that part of the flight, the helicopter made numerous heading deviations in both directions (mostly to the right). While traveling back to the airport in IMC, the pilot heard a loud sound coming from the tail of the helicopter followed immediately by yawing in a clockwise direction, which was not corrected by the pilot's anti-torque pedal input. The helicopter descended into shallow water, coming to rest upright.
Although the pilot believed that the tail rotor had failed or malfunctioned, a postaccident examination of the helicopter's anti-torque system revealed no evidence of any preimpact failure or malfunction. The pilot's perceived malfunction of the tail rotor, which occurred while the helicopter was flying at low airspeed, was likely the result of the pilot's spatial disorientation, which began after he encountered IMC.
Probable Cause: The pilot's decision to depart on a visual flight rules flight, and to continue that flight into forecasted and deteriorating instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) in a helicopter that was not equipped for flight in IMC, which resulted in the pilot's spatial disorientation and a subsequent loss of control.
aviation-safety.net/wikibase/...
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I won’t judge him. It’s a scary feeling that overtakes you and I am sure he had immediate regret he continued. I’m just glad he walked away from it.
Lots of people here minimizing the task of IMC flying. It's bad enough in a light airplane, especially if it's unplanned and/or you're not current. As an instrument instructor in helicopters, and lots of SPIFR IMC time, I tell my students that your scan rate in a light helicopter like a 206 needs to be about 5 times faster than in a light airplane. The aircraft is very responsive in both pitch and roll, so it's a full time job just keeping it wings level. There's a reason autopilots are required equipment in IFR helicopters. The medic who commented about flying IMC, I can pretty much guarantee you that the autopilot was flying the helicopter the entire time. A VFR Bell 206 doesn't have an autopilot... so a completely different situation. I'm actually pretty impressed that this pilot survived... it's a perfect setup for a fatal loss of control accident. As for the Monday morning quarterbacking, yeah, he probably should have just landed on the beach before things got so dire, but it's always easy to make those decisions from the comfort of your armchair.
Thanks for the great points
James Hunt:"" I suppose that all depends on how good you are in the rain.""
A lot of those decisions can and should be made during thorough pre-flight planning and during the weather briefing. Not bouncing through the scud.
in case you dont know, a bell helicopter is different animal than your cherokee you got your IFR certificate in....
Not judging. This serves as a reminder that errerring on the side of caution before taking off into deteriorating weather conditions is ok.
I can't even imagine trying to last as long as he did while flying that helicopter in IMC. He gave it everything he had - and in an aircraft which couldn't handle it. And it is so darn easy to go just one short step too far. It's a second-by-second evaluation...
IFR in a helicopter is exceedingly difficult, helicopters are so unstable and can do something like yaw very quickly. Without an autopilot, IFR in a helicopter is hell of a time.
@JohnChuprun Yup. The only western helicopter certified for IFR without an autopilot was the Bell 222. A local corporation kept one at our field, and I knew a few of the pilots. They HATED flying it IFR. Although it was stable compared to other helicopters, it was still a handful to fly without an autopilot... You had to try to keep your scan going while folding a chart, or doing other tasks. They all wished it had an autopilot.
In my case, I would mostly hand fly IFR in order to stay proficient. It's hard to do, because you have to break down even simple tasks. Say you have to change the heading bug... So, first you interrupt your scan long enough to put your hand on the knob. Go a couple times around your scan... Now twist the knob a couple times in the right direction. Scan, scan. Keep doing that until you get the bug where it belongs. Same thing with trying to use your iPad or the navigation radios... Everything takes 3 times as long, because you can't omit your scan long enough to complete a task. When stuff gets busy, I generally have to turn on the autopilot. Inside the marker I generally hand fly because I'm more precise than the autopilot, but that's just for a minute or two..,
@@paulcantrell01451 Yeah I can only imagine. I'm only fixed wing and I can only dream about how difficult heli IFR would be, being that everything happens so fast in a heli trying to balance.
He may not have even had an attitude indicator, etc. , and that's a very uneasy feeling. Been there done that, and I just landed at the next available platform one day when I was flying the oil field back in the 80's. Took the boat in, and the fog was solid for 2 days. Corpus Christi, TX. 👍👍🙏
I wasn't there. I won't judge him. The stress of that situation surely played a factor in this. He did make the decision to go back. I don't fly helicopters, but I would think that GPS would be just as helpful in a heli as it is in fixed wing, especially in IMC. I know helicopters are busy cockpits. Hope he makes a full recovery and can help others via his experiances.
GPS isn't the issue, GPS is great as a navigational aid. That's not the problem here, the problem is trying to keep the aircraft upright. While he probably had an attitude indicator ( artificial horizon ) it's actually quite difficult to maintain a light helicopter's attitude because of the minimal stability of a helicopter. If you notice, he was trying to fly back towards the airport, but kept turning out to sea - that's a classic manifestation, where the aircraft isn't being held wings level, and therefore keeps turning. The stability is relaxed enough in light helicopters, that it's easy to end up inverted in just a second or so... If you've ever ridden a bicycle with the from wheel facing backwards you'll get a little bit of an idea of what it's like... The bicycle ( or helicopter ) rather than wanting to just fly straight ahead, constantly tries to change which way it's going. In VFR conditions, it causes a high workload, but you get used to it... But when you go IMC the workload gets huge.
Can't judge.... shit happens... he lived.... he will learn from this mistake and hopefully he doesn't do it again. I fly on long island and the fog and the wind will get you everytime. Just gotta be smart and hopefully, like I said, he doesn't repeat this incident.
I don’t know how the pilot was able to last as long as he did in a non IFR capable ship.
It’s just meadowbrook parkway, not meadowbrooks. From Long Island had to point that out
I know the twr isn't a pilot, but those long, rambling calls aren't helpful imo. It's taking up the pilot's mental bandwidth to try to parse what is being said and how to apply it. It's like being asked to recite the alphabet backwards while juggling.
Pilot should climb and declare emergency then get vectors to vmc assuming fuel state was not an issue. Self vectoring at low altitude not knowing which direction you're heading is not ideal. Non gyro vectors from approach controller would've been the best bet, at least from my arm chair quarterback position.
At the beginning of the recording, he's at 400 feet and probably had vertical visibility straight down. Later he was at 700 feet, but I would guess this was inadvertent. He reported being completely IMC at that point. Here's where helicopters and airplanes are different: when he was at 400 feet he probably should have turned to intercept the beach, and descended as necessary to maintain ground contact, even if it was mostly straight down. When he was over the beach he could have continued the decent and simply landed on the beach. Unless it was a very thin layer ( I don't think it was ) climbing would have just caused more issues. Keep in mind that the average commercial helicopter pilot has a fair bit of experience flying in 1/2 mile visibility or so. Keeping ground contact is extremely important in such situations, so climbing just causes what happened here - loss of ground contact leading to complete IMC. Not a good situation in a light helicopter. I'm not saying it was smart to be flying in this conditions, just that "climb and get vectors" is very much an airplane procedure that really doesn't work for the average helicopter situation. Going lower and slower and landing at the first safe open area is a more typical solution for these situations.
The controller was babbling too much unhelpful info. Short declarative sentences are best. “Recommend heading --“
I'm not sure the pilot was IFR capable... even a rookie IFR rated pilot knows how to do partial panel and doesn't need much more than the ball, oil compass and altimeter to keep the aircraft level. From his track, it appears he had a bad case of the leans and was completely spatially disoriented. I'm glad he survived.
I used to fly a SPIFR L3 on instruments ( and I'm a helicopter instrument instructor ), and while you might be able to fly IFR like you're saying in an airplane, in a light helicopter like a 206, forget it. The aircraft is not stable, and even with an attitude indicator it's a lot of work keeping the aircraft level. I'm familiar with the area he was in, having flown into coast guard stations Eaton's Neck, Fire Island, and Shinnecock. Not a lot of high obstacles, but water water everywhere, pumping up the mist and fog.
You're incorrect that rookie ifr pilots are great at partial panel, and you have to be smoking something quite expensive to think ifr in Bell 206 is anything like fixed wing IFR.
@@paulcantrell01451 I will defer to your expertise on flying choppers. and withdraw my comment. Thanks.
What’s an oil compass
@@alancaro526 he means a whisky compass, as opposed to a vertical card compass
Even a non-IFR ship will give you altitude, bearing, speed and an artificial horizon. Why in God's name did he not just declare and ask for radar vectors? Then again, we're talking about a chopper jocky who knowingly took a non-IFR equipped aircraft into IMC.
Which led to the pilot's spatial disorientation and a subsequent loss of control.
Led.
@@Flight_FollowerIf you watch the artificial horizon and altitude and keep those stable, you can slowly take it down to land on land. Too many pilots seem to think that they have to keep flying at full speed to a destination airfield in IFR instead of just escaping IFR in stable flight and landing ASAP.
ATC should recommend a heading......helo, recommend heading 080, airport 3-5 miles....ect ect
Wow poor guy. Might not have been instrument qualified. Wonder why tower didn’t ask about souls on board and fuel once they declared emergency for him? I’m assuming he was alone
He finds himself in IMC and chooses to proceed to an airfield instead of just focusing on stable flight toward land slowly descending out of the clouds. As long as the artificial horizon is mostly level, the altitude is stable or slowly descending, the airspeed is slow, and the compass points in the direction of land, you get out of IFR and land before you make a crucial mistake. Oftentimes its high speed that makes small, unnoticed pilot mistakes become big mistakes quickly in IFR.
Single pilot over water with heavy fog. Very difficult. Without knowing what instrumentation the aircraft was equipped, it’s impossible to determine what his decision making process was. Suffice to say his biggest mistake was allowing himself to get into that weather to start with. As a former military instructor and instrument examiner in helicopters, jet rangers are not easy instrument platforms and if the aircraft is not IFR equipped, the pilot’s weather minimums should be pretty high, as in no lower than 1000/3.
Just land ! It’s helicopter
I worked on a medical helicopter as a medic and we got into bad imc the same as the one in this video.the pilot had to fly several miles to get where we could see to land.. he had no problem with keeping us on course and in the air...so it can be done by a good pilot..
I commented elsewhere, but what equipment were you flying? It almost certainly had an autopilot ( they're required equipment for an IFR helicopter ) and your pilot was almost certainly using it. A very different situation than a VFR Bell which almost certainly did NOT have an autopilot. Quite challenging to fly with boosted controls that give absolutely no feedback ( my aircraft requires stick feedback to be turned on in IMC conditions, the VFR machine has none of that ).
autopilot or 2-pilot crew....always....why take a chance on "hows your flying today?"
@@paulcantrell01451 it was a bell 406 VFR only the pilot was IFR but the helicopter was VFR only this was back in late 80s early 90s
@@johndoe-el5icBell 406 one pilot.no autopilot.it was clear when we departed by the time we returned it was IMC.came in fast on us
@@stevestevens9046 you probably mean Bell 407, they're commonly used as a light VFR medical helicopter ( although I'm not a fan of using light helicopters like the 407 or AS350 in EMS operations - I'm much more a fan of using IFR twins like the H145/BK or Bell 429 in an IFR program ).
I'm a little surprised at the way you described the encounter - while stuff happens, and it sounds like you had a great pilot, it's a mistake to think that the average commercial helicopter pilot can handle situations like that. As I'm sure you're aware, the EMS industry is littered with dead crews ( and patients ) from inadvertent IMC encounters. There was a period a ways back where the insurance industry was on the verge of shutting down the EMS industry - there were so many losses occurring. I hope for your sake going IMC was a once in a career kind of deal. It's that dangerous. I have 4 buddies flying EMS, BTW... Fly safe!!!
When
Another pilot who never checks wx with inadequate skills and equipment dealing with fog. Tries to hide his predicament….oh yea, we’re in the clouds.
He should have took the Emergency
You should turn the comments section off and just let people watch instead of all this armchair, quarterbacking stuff you all have no idea what was going on up there and you cannot speculate it’s just not appropriate.
The last thing you want to do is turn comments off. Is that going to stop stupid people from thinking stupid things? People in the comments correcting stupid people is the only chance of correcting stupid people. If you’re too sensitive to acknowledge the stupidity out there, then just don’t read the “stupid” peoples’ comments.
Lots of excuses. None are valid.
I will-
R U IFR capable?
I am, the ship isn’t
REALLY DUDE?
can U spell DECISION?
Keep in mind that VFR helicopters legally have extremely low weather requirements ( 1/2 mile visibility, clear of clouds... it used to be even less ). Not saying he was okay or smart, but helicopters can be operated safely VFR in pretty shitty weather, if you know the area.
One problem I've experienced is that often the weather at departure is okish, but slowly deteriorates as you fly along. It's not like you are flying in good weather and then fly into a wall of bad weather... If the visibility gradually gets worse, or the cloud layer slowly forces you lower and lower, there isn't always an obvious "time to make a decision". It's also amazingly easy to convince yourself that if you just go a little further, it'll get better. ( And sometimes it does! But usually it doesn't ).
Best advice I have is actually write down your personal weather minimums, and don't allow yourself any slack ( well, it's a little less than a mile, but I think it's still probably OK ). With the written minimums, check on a regular basis and if you're at minimums either make a 180 or land... Don't keep going hoping that it'll improve...
Also, on the "I am the ship isn't", just because you have an instrument rating doesn't mean you're instrument capable. If you haven't flown helicopter IFR in the last few weeks, you're not current nor capable. And sadly, the hoods that most people practice with don't block nearly enough. You can do great under the hood, but fly into actual IMC and be all over the sky... The average helicopter pilot who has the instrument rating will struggle mightily just maintaining control in IMC. It's a very perishable skill.
One bit of good news - more and more light helicopters are being equipped with autopilots. That can be a help ( but also give some people the excuse to push on even harder ).
DEI strikes again. Unqualified pilots getting helo jobs!
I did not gather that from the audio.
Wow, NYers with local accent are considered DEI now. What an Amazing country🤣