Tweet
I except most of us saw the pictures of the Merlin MK4, crashed in a Devon field yesterday, with the tragic loss of all three crew members? I flew in Wessex & Seakings during my 12yrs in the RN. It was always an exciting moment, perhaps because it was never so often to become routine & despite several crashes, some fatal during my time, especially when serving at RN Air Station Culdrose.
When a chopper went down, there was a form with four pages that had to be completed, purely from the Medical side. Every crew member would have the initial form completed, a second form if they had any injuries, another if they got wet i.e. in a ditching over the sea, did they step from the chopper into the liferaft or have to escape through the windows & then find & swim to the liferaft & the final one was for any deceased. Luckily, I never had reason to complete the fourth page.
Air accidents are investigated more than any other & I am confident that the cause will be found & hopefully this will prevent a similar accident again. Of course, due to lack of survivors, they will only have the black box & any eye witnesses to question. When the pilot is deceased, it's easy to put the majority of blame on them. As it occurred around 04:00, I imagine fatigue will be one potential cause they will investigate. Unfortunately, the MOD doesn't have a great record of open reporting & many families have had to fight to get info or defend their lost relatives reputations.
Anyway, once offshore flying became a compulsory part of the job. And since 1990, when I started there have been many crashes since. Just before in '86, 45 lives were lost in a Chinook crash into the sea, just one minute from Sumburgh airport. Chinook's were never used again.
1990 a Sikorsky crash, 6 died & every 2-3 yrs since choppers have gone down, with differing survival rates. I once did a study & found that although some crashes resulted in total fatalities, others managed to land on the water & stay upright & all survived (todays choppers have hull shaped bases & flotation devices), much depends on th eweather at the time, the sea state & how extreme the mechanical failure.
Every four yrs, you have to complete a Survival course, where they stick you in a steel box & set fire to it. THen hand you a fire extinguisher & then put you in the body of a chopper, with windows that you have to knock out & dunk you three times under the water. You have to resist escaping until the body has stopped rolling over or get to re run.
My personal survival technique was to always get a seat by a window. Pert side had two seats, Stbd one. So a Stbd seat meant now one would be fighting to get past me to escape though th ewindow, Sitting nearest the door wasn't an option after then chose to make those seats for the fat boys only! THe main point wa sif you were still concious after impact, then if you could access an escape window/door. THen the priority was finding the liferaft & helping each other onto it. Once in the liferaft, assuming no lofe threatening injury, you should surviv, as time in the raft was likely to be very short; most accidents happending near thecoast or the rig. Standby boats circle the rig 24/7 incase of crashes or man over board ect. was cautious but never had anxiety, like some. If it worried you too much, my advice was to find another job.
IAs far as I can remember I have never dreamed about crashing/ ditching until last night. Obviously the burnt out wreck was on my mind but surprisingly it wasn't a nightmare. We went down, all escaped & were rescued & were taken to an unfamiliar rig (I didn't know my way around the accom) but all I was worried about was getting issued a new set of clothes & was my phone OK (switched off, it's kept on your person when you fly, wearing a 'dry' suit, surprisingly the phone worked & I wanted to call home as I knew a second crash, two days in a row would be reported on the news & my wife would be very worried, wondering if it was my flight or not. So my subconscious was aware of the latest accident but still had me working Offshore, 18 months after my retirement & my wife still in Belgium, which we left nearly 5yrs ago.
The amount of detail surprised me, I even shouted, we'll be entitled to survivors leave! Which is something that only happens in the RN, my mate got it after being captured in the Falklands & returned to the UK. I saw him a week ago & we had discussed that.
I guess it was conflagration of previous experiences & current events, reasonable concern about aircraft that won't glide & have an excellent safety record for the thousands of man hours flown but always have a risk of having a very bad day. My subconscious seems to be releaved it's not my risk to take anymore.
Think I'll smoke a Cohiba this afternoon & raise a tot of rum to the three aircrew, who died serving our country, may they R.I.P.
They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old, age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn, at the going down of the sun & in the morning , we will remember them.
When a chopper went down, there was a form with four pages that had to be completed, purely from the Medical side. Every crew member would have the initial form completed, a second form if they had any injuries, another if they got wet i.e. in a ditching over the sea, did they step from the chopper into the liferaft or have to escape through the windows & then find & swim to the liferaft & the final one was for any deceased. Luckily, I never had reason to complete the fourth page.
Air accidents are investigated more than any other & I am confident that the cause will be found & hopefully this will prevent a similar accident again. Of course, due to lack of survivors, they will only have the black box & any eye witnesses to question. When the pilot is deceased, it's easy to put the majority of blame on them. As it occurred around 04:00, I imagine fatigue will be one potential cause they will investigate. Unfortunately, the MOD doesn't have a great record of open reporting & many families have had to fight to get info or defend their lost relatives reputations.
Anyway, once offshore flying became a compulsory part of the job. And since 1990, when I started there have been many crashes since. Just before in '86, 45 lives were lost in a Chinook crash into the sea, just one minute from Sumburgh airport. Chinook's were never used again.
1990 a Sikorsky crash, 6 died & every 2-3 yrs since choppers have gone down, with differing survival rates. I once did a study & found that although some crashes resulted in total fatalities, others managed to land on the water & stay upright & all survived (todays choppers have hull shaped bases & flotation devices), much depends on th eweather at the time, the sea state & how extreme the mechanical failure.
Every four yrs, you have to complete a Survival course, where they stick you in a steel box & set fire to it. THen hand you a fire extinguisher & then put you in the body of a chopper, with windows that you have to knock out & dunk you three times under the water. You have to resist escaping until the body has stopped rolling over or get to re run.
My personal survival technique was to always get a seat by a window. Pert side had two seats, Stbd one. So a Stbd seat meant now one would be fighting to get past me to escape though th ewindow, Sitting nearest the door wasn't an option after then chose to make those seats for the fat boys only! THe main point wa sif you were still concious after impact, then if you could access an escape window/door. THen the priority was finding the liferaft & helping each other onto it. Once in the liferaft, assuming no lofe threatening injury, you should surviv, as time in the raft was likely to be very short; most accidents happending near thecoast or the rig. Standby boats circle the rig 24/7 incase of crashes or man over board ect. was cautious but never had anxiety, like some. If it worried you too much, my advice was to find another job.
IAs far as I can remember I have never dreamed about crashing/ ditching until last night. Obviously the burnt out wreck was on my mind but surprisingly it wasn't a nightmare. We went down, all escaped & were rescued & were taken to an unfamiliar rig (I didn't know my way around the accom) but all I was worried about was getting issued a new set of clothes & was my phone OK (switched off, it's kept on your person when you fly, wearing a 'dry' suit, surprisingly the phone worked & I wanted to call home as I knew a second crash, two days in a row would be reported on the news & my wife would be very worried, wondering if it was my flight or not. So my subconscious was aware of the latest accident but still had me working Offshore, 18 months after my retirement & my wife still in Belgium, which we left nearly 5yrs ago.
The amount of detail surprised me, I even shouted, we'll be entitled to survivors leave! Which is something that only happens in the RN, my mate got it after being captured in the Falklands & returned to the UK. I saw him a week ago & we had discussed that.
I guess it was conflagration of previous experiences & current events, reasonable concern about aircraft that won't glide & have an excellent safety record for the thousands of man hours flown but always have a risk of having a very bad day. My subconscious seems to be releaved it's not my risk to take anymore.
Think I'll smoke a Cohiba this afternoon & raise a tot of rum to the three aircrew, who died serving our country, may they R.I.P.
They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old, age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn, at the going down of the sun & in the morning , we will remember them.
