Even though no one knows what exactly happened, I just want to say thank you for writing this. I don't know why this has affected me so much but it's nice to have some idea of what went on for this tragedy to happen. Does that make sense? Like to me, not knowing anything at all of aviation, being able to read something from someone who knows what they are talking about instead of all the bull**** takes coming from media and ever so slightly understand why this happened is better than just being in utter disbelief at the whole thing.
Agreed. Trust me. As an airline pilot for over 20 years the last thing I do is listen to the media when it comes to aviation.
Here's the thing though. I've had friends die from CFIT accidents when I first started training and building my hours. I've had a few close calls early in my training with the weather. I deal with mountainous terrain often in my job. The company is also mandated to train us annually with CFIT in ground school and the simulator. I know a case of CFIT when I see it. This has that written all over it.
Could they have had a mechanical issue? Possibly. We'll wait for the TSB report on that one but I highly doubt it. CFIT continues to plague the industry and that helicopter is as safe as they come. Not saying it didn't happen just unlikely.
Here's the thing with aviation accidents or incidents. It's never one particular item that causes the accident. It's a sequence of events that go uncorrected before the accident or incident. It's called the swiss cheese model and it's taught to pilots through CRM (crew resource management). We get it taught annually to us at my airline and I teach it to college kids here at a local college. It's based on the TEM model. The threat error model. Basically there are threats out there that we have to manage for a successful outcome. There are also errors that we will make as humans that need to be recognized and corrected for a successful outcome. Threats in this case would have been the weather, terrain, pressures to get the passengers to their destination, etc... Errors would have been not accounting for the weather, turning towards the hill, etc.... So these threats and errors have to managed properly. Several elements are generally in place to deal with them. These would be the layers of "cheese". Each in place to stop the negative outcome. Company procedures, proper briefings, ATC are all different levels of cheese. When one procedure fails, it pokes a hole in it (hence swiss cheese) and the next level is designed to stop it. The last line of defence is the crew or in this case, the one pilot. When all the defence mechanisms fail, each piece of cheese has a hole poked in it and the accident happens. It's basic but it is how it works. I could write pages on this in more detail but that is generally the basic of it.
So in this case, without assuming too much, even if that helicopter had a mechanical issue there were several other threats and errors that went uncorrected or unmanaged that could have avoided this terrible tragedy.
Edited to add the Swiss cheese diagram.
Agreed. Trust me. As an airline pilot for over 20 years the last thing I do is listen to the media when it comes to aviation.
Here's the thing though. I've had friends die from CFIT accidents when I first started training and building my hours. I've had a few close calls early in my training with the weather. I deal with mountainous terrain often in my job. The company is also mandated to train us annually with CFIT in ground school and the simulator. I know a case of CFIT when I see it. This has that written all over it.
Could they have had a mechanical issue? Possibly. We'll wait for the TSB report on that one but I highly doubt it. CFIT continues to plague the industry and that helicopter is as safe as they come. Not saying it didn't happen just unlikely.
Here's the thing with aviation accidents or incidents. It's never one particular item that causes the accident. It's a sequence of events that go uncorrected before the accident or incident. It's called the swiss cheese model and it's taught to pilots through CRM (crew resource management). We get it taught annually to us at my airline and I teach it to college kids here at a local college. It's based on the TEM model. The threat error model. Basically there are threats out there that we have to manage for a successful outcome. There are also errors that we will make as humans that need to be recognized and corrected for a successful outcome. Threats in this case would have been the weather, terrain, pressures to get the passengers to their destination, etc... Errors would have been not accounting for the weather, turning towards the hill, etc.... So these threats and errors have to managed properly. Several elements are generally in place to deal with them. These would be the layers of "cheese". Each in place to stop the negative outcome. Company procedures, proper briefings, ATC are all different levels of cheese. When one procedure fails, it pokes a hole in it (hence swiss cheese) and the next level is designed to stop it. The last line of defence is the crew or in this case, the one pilot. When all the defence mechanisms fail, each piece of cheese has a hole poked in it and the accident happens. It's basic but it is how it works. I could write pages on this in more detail but that is generally the basic of it.
So in this case, without assuming too much, even if that helicopter had a mechanical issue there were several other threats and errors that went uncorrected or unmanaged that could have avoided this terrible tragedy.
Edited to add the Swiss cheese diagram.
I won’t go up in one again either. My wife always wanted to do a tour of Hawaii or the Grand Canyon. I nixed that immediately.
Yeah, Ive read some more on it and I get why he did it. Its one of those catch 22s where yeah it saved him time and gave him more time to devote to his family but it also took his life in the end.
