heya, happend yesterday, guess its a good reminder that nothing is safe....

have a look: Youtube Video »


Admin: Embedded link

And from another perspective (starting ~03:00):

VIDEO: Auckland chopper crash - full video

Man sieht gar nicht genau was der trifft, das eigene Seil was unten dran hängt und auch oben am Mast? Auf alle Fälle mußte er das treffen bevor er aufsetzt, klar absehbar, war da niemand am Boden. Überhaupt wieso wirft man das nicht ab. Sieht aus wie ne ziemlich dumme Sache...
Und ziemliches Glück das niemand am Boden was abbekommen hat.
Schlägt ein Rotor so ein Seil nicht durch?

Hmm, was genau ist da passiert?!

Sorry its just easier to do it in english... so here we go.

after the the sub-structure of the x-mas tree was erected the pilot tried to release the lifting-strop. unfortunately the hook didn't open due to the fact that the synthetic strop didn't packed enough weight (hooks need some weight pulling down to actually open, some models require up to 20lb)... the pilot moved to the side and down to enable ground-crew to pull on the strop to free it from the hook. as you can see in the second sequence in the video a ground-crew is jumping up to pull. now the real problem starts, since the downward pull takes all the slack out of the line it tightens up, the angle changes and it goes straight into the blades. As far as i could see on the wreck (did actually see it in person) one of the blades is quite severely damaged on the leading edge. this in turn will have caused an unbalance on the rotor-disc causing vibrations, main transmission and engine separate from the fuselage which causes damage to the tail-rotor drive shaft causing the boom to sheer of as well... e voila....

that is roughly the sequence of events

Da werden wohl hoffentlich Konsequenzen gezogen und die Vorschriften für die Hooks geändert. Wenn man das liest ist es wohl ziemliches Glück, daß nicht einer von den Ziehenden geschreddert wurde, wie der so schnell wegrennen konnte, geht doch wie der Blitz alles.
Die ganze Sache mit dem Hüpfen und ziehen ist ja noch viel blöder...

ahh nexus,
young son, so what would you change in the rules for hooks? take into account that the fella who jumped up there was not supposed to, he was tasked to pull the strop straight down, so he fucked up. we do a lot of lifting and there is always a danger that something goes wrong. what is your opinion how it should be done? i am against to many rules and regulations, just for the fact that we all have to make a living out of it. this is not to say that it shouldn't be safe! but learning from previous mistakes, modify the parameters is by far more efficient than just calling for a change of rules?!?
always remember, we work in this environment and we did choose so... it is more dangerous because we do things others haven't done or were incapable of, so we do it.

It is quite stupid not to take consequences from these accident.
Cause for these accident is the fact that the hook doesn't open without a pulling force these has to be changed a hook has to open with zero force from the strop.
People who pull strops into a helicopter rotor while standing below it need more rules.
The have to be forced to check if the hook opens at any case an not to be aloud to startup the helicopter otherwise.