[Peetwo]

Fact: The Air is the same Downunder -   

When I first read the known details about this tragic accident and now with the prelim report, I could not help but make the comparison to the Kobe Bryant ( see - Kobe Bryant NTSB Final Report released.  & C&C III: Homendy Final Media brief.)

Well it would seem that someone else has seen the similarities? Picked this up from the excellent Simple Flying blog in the US:

Five Lives Lost In Repeat Of Kobe Bryant Crash

BY MICHAEL DORAN
PUBLISHED 15 HOURS AGO

Despite all the new technologies in helicopters and airplanes, controlled flight into terrain happens far too frequently and lives are lost.



A May 12 preliminary report into a helicopter crash that killed five people in Australia looks eerily similar to the crash that killed US basketball legend Kobe Bryant and eight others in 2020. Both accidents involved a pilot flying under visual flight rules (VFR) becoming disoriented after flying into dense clouds. After losing visual contact with the ground, both pilots lost their situational awareness and flew their aircraft into the terrain.

On March 31, 2022, the Australian accident involved an Airbus EC130 helicopter carrying one pilot and four passengers. The aircraft was traversing mountainous terrain when it hit the top of a large, old-growth tree, crashed to the ground and caught fire. The Australian Transport Safety Board's (ATSB) preliminary report goes into great detail about the changing weather conditions en route. It also correlates the reducing visibility with the pilot's decision to continue the flight while operating under VFR.

What happens when you don't know which way is up?

The crash aircraft was behind another Airbus EC130 from the same company, carrying five people. A front-seat passenger in the lead aircraft, a pilot, told the ATSB that his pilot had radioed the other aircraft to discuss the approaching bad weather.

The passenger added that "a wispy cloud went past us and then a heavy white cloud came down and dumped on us,

"...and as we crossed Mt Disappointment heavy cloud rolled in, resulting in a white-out with ground visibility no longer evident."

He said the lead pilot radioed the trailing aircraft and said words to the effect, 'U-turn, U-turn, U-turn' and immediately completed a U-turn. The other pilot radioed back with words to the effect, 'aren't we going to cut through?' and the passenger saw the helicopter pass just below them.

According to the ATSB preliminary report, one aircraft took immediate evasive action and five people lived. The other aircraft carried on and five people died.

Preliminary reports are due within a prescribed period, and this one ends with all the data gathered. The ATSB now starts the difficult job of determining all the factors that contributed to the accident.



The ATSB has collected all the evidence and now has to find what contributed to the accident. Photo: Australian Transport Safety Bureau

CFIT affects both rotary and fixed-wing aircraft

Unfortunately, controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) happens far too regularly and afflicts rotary and fixed-wing aircraft. A perfectly functional aircraft is piloted into terrain because the pilot lost their sense of where they are, or as some would put it, 'which way is up.'

From 2010 to 2019, the US National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) identified 20 helicopter crashes and another 184 airplane accidents in the US stemming from spatial disorientation of pilots.

In 2019 an Airbus AS350 helicopter operated by Safari Aviation crashed in a mountainous region of Hawaii, with seven people losing their lives. In 2020 Kobe Bryant's aircraft was flying under VFR rules when it inadvertently entered heavy cloud and descended steeply into a fog-shrouded hillside, killing nine.

Also released yesterday was the final report on a helicopter crash in Canada in 2021 that killed four people. Canada's Transportation Safety Board says the crash was due to the pilot's decision to fly in poor weather at night.

It pointed to deteriorating weather and poor visibility causing the pilot to lose control and hit the ground. The report also questioned conducting night VFR flights when the regulations do not clearly define what a 'visual reference to the surface' actually means.

What needs to change - VFR regulations or pilot training in poor visibility?

MTF...P2