[Peetwo]

One for the Flight Safety textbooks - err maybe??

Slight thread dread but finally a good news story on an aviation occurrence and it involves another survived ditching at sea....

Via the Daily Mercury:

Pilot set off 'mayday' signal
10th Nov 2017 6:00 AM



The helicopter which crashed off Hayman Island with four people on board. RACQ CQ Rescue



by Tara Cassidy

THE pilot involved in the helicopter incident north of Hayman Island did well to land safely in such choppy conditions, according to the president of a local aviation club.
Stan Wright, of the Airlie Beach Aero Club, said this sort of incident only occurred "once every 10 years”.

There were four people on board the helicopter that was forced into an emergency landing off Hayman Island Wednesday afternoon, all of them believed to be Australian tourists visiting the Whitsundays for a holiday.

About 3.40pm the pilot of the Hamilton Island, Robinson R44 helicopter made a mayday call and set off the aircraft's distress beacon, alerting AMSAR who then initiated a rescue effort.

An AMSAR spokesperson said a passenger vessel called Sea Odyssey, a local cruise boat, was then diverted by AMSAR to go and assist the four passengers who were floating in the water holding on to the aircraft.

When it landed, the helicopter activated its emergency flotation devices, allowing it to land safely upright in the water near Hook Reef.

None of the people aboard were injured in the landing.

RACQ CQ Rescue were called to the incident about 3.50pm, which occurred 25km north east of Hayman Island, however were stood down once the rescue vessel reached the passengers in the water and transported them to safety on Hamilton Island.



Four people that were aboard a helicopter forced into emergency landing, floating in the ocean awaiting emergency crews. Seven News

Whitsundays VMR were also on standby with a paramedic aboard, in case back up was needed, but it was not required in the end.

Water police notified the Australian Transport Safety Bureau of the incident soon after it took place, and said the owner of the aircraft would be responsible for salvaging the helicopter in the coming days, now that they were safe on shore.

With stormy weather hitting the region overnight, it is not known what the condition of the helicopter is in, or if it is still afloat.

Peter Gibson from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority said any further investigations into the incident would be run by the safety bureau, while they would review a report from the operator about the process the pilot took on the day.

"We will review that and make sure all the appropriate regulatory standards were being met,” he said.

"We need to make sure the air operator that operated that flight was meeting all the applicable safety standards so we get a report from them on that flight, what happened, how the flight was conducted and so on.

"It is stock standard for us just to make sure the right processes were followed.”

It is not yet known what caused the incident.

Pinocchio Gobson: "We will review that and make sure all the appropriate regulatory standards were being met,” he said.
Code for we'll make sure our (CASA's) ass is covered before exploring whether it will be worth embuggering either the operator or the pilot. This will depend on whether the overseeing (cross out appropriate) FOI/Middle manager/Executive Manager has some personal 'bent' against said operator and/or pilot -    

"We need to make sure the air operator that operated that flight was meeting all the applicable safety standards so we get a report from them on that flight, what happened, how the flight was conducted and so on.

"It is stock standard for us just to make sure the right processes were followed.” "Stock Standard" when it may be possible to get any sort of bad press (ala PelAir) from the wash up of this unfortunate pilot survived occurrence...


MTF...P2