Robinson R22 Beta, C-GVAR: Accident occurred November 28, 2011 at Kitchener/Waterloo Airport (CYKF), Ontario, Canada

 

Tiffany Hanna

 


 
It’s a bleak story, the helicopter crash that killed a pilot at the local airport last November.

Carelessness. Bad luck. Mistakes. Pretty much everything that could go wrong went wrong in the flight, crash and rescue.   What might be learned?

The crash investigation points to pilot Tiffany Hanna, who failed to manage the known risk of ice choking the carburetor.

She had trained for this. The helicopter had equipment to monitor and address the risk. But as flight commander she didn’t get it right. We don’t know why. But we know the sad result. Her young son lost his mother. A student pilot she was instructing was badly injured.

After the crash, 911 operators failed to promptly relay the crash location to firefighters. This carelessness left frustrated rescuers searching in the wrong places, delaying their arrival for too many minutes.

Bad luck? When the engine failed the helicopter was in the worst place, flying low over hangars above overhead wires strung between numerous poles.

Hanna stretched for an empty field. She must have seen it as the only place to put it down hard. But it was too far and she couldn’t pull off a difficult emergency landing. The helicopter fell just short into a swamp. Maybe she just needed 20 more metres to work with.

Mistakes? The misdirected airport fire truck rushed the wrong way outside the Region of Waterloo International Airport and collided with an exit post causing $50,000 damage.

At one point emergency dispatchers wrongly tried to send Wilmot firefighters rather than Woolwich firefighters.

The air ambulance called to the crash delayed taking off from Toronto under a money-saving policy since rescinded.

Did anything go right? Civilian bystanders called 911 and rushed into the water to help the victims. These are the crash heroes and tellingly, they’re the factor you can’t plan for.

Thankfully the helicopter didn’t burn, perhaps because it crashed into a swamp. Thankfully the student pilot survived. We’re told a faster rescue would not have saved the pilot.

Lessons learned?  Pilots take note — flight is unforgiving. Politicians have pledged rescue and dispatch improvements. But there are hurdles in the way.

Much was tested that day. Too much came up short. Please let’s not have such a hard lesson again.

Read more:   http://www.therecord.com/opinion

 http://www.bst-tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-reports/aviation/2011/a11o0222/a11o0222.asp

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab20/bizjets101/R-22C-GVARcrash.jpg  TSB Photo crash site photo

http://www.flickr.com/photo