MY2 CENTS
HONORING THAT SACRED TRUST
By Randy Mains
“Sacred trust.” That is what your passengers give you every time they get into your helicopter to go on a flight. By their very actions they are saying to you, “I am literally placing my life in your hands.”
When Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven other people were killed in a helicopter crash on the morning of Jan. 26 in foggy conditions near the community of Calabasas, California, I was in Anaheim attending HAI Heli-Expo as a speaker in the Rotorcraft Safety Challenge. The site of the crash was only 55 miles by road from the conference center. As you can imagine, along with the public outcry created by such a high-profile helicopter crash, it created quite a buzz among the conference attendees. I was asked by friends in person, in e-mails, and on social media about my opinion on the cause of the crash. I told them, “Let’s wait until we hear what the NTSB has to say.” The preliminary NTSB report is now out and it paints a troubling picture.
While attending a banquet that night at the conference, I spoke with Matt Zuccaro, the outgoing president of the HAI (Helicopter Association International). He told me that when he turned on the news that morning and learned of the crash, he went absolutely livid.
I understood why he was so personally angry. Several years ago he told the industry he was sick and tired of reading accident report after accident report of helicopter crashes where, had the pilot just landed (after all you’re flying a helicopter) instead of pushing deteriorating weather, lives would be spared. He came up with
10 Mar/Apr 2020
two phrases that spread industry wide – “Land the Damn Helicopter” and “Land and Live” – that have made it internationally onto posters, T-shirts, coffee mugs, pens, etc. In our discussion, Matt told me he has a stack of e-mails from pilots thanking him because they heeded his words and lived to tell about it.
After studying the reports of the Kobe Bryant crash, it appears the weather was a significant factor. It is easy to discern that if the pilot had not elected to press on in deteriorating weather, had he called it quits and just landed before he felt he needed to climb in IMC to try to get on top, everyone would be alive today.
According to the NTSB report the pilot was very experienced, which makes the crash all the more puzzling. He’d been with the company for 10 years and held ratings for helicopter and instrument helicopter, as well as instrument flight instructor. He had amassed 8,200 hours of flight experience. In his most recent flight review, including proficiency training in inadvertent entry into instrument meteorological conditions (IIMC) and unusual attitude recovery, the pilot received satisfactory grades.
Instrument flying is the most perishable skill there is. Flying into the clouds when, by law, you are supposed to remain visual, is a phenomenon that has killed scores of inexperienced and experienced pilots. They got in over their heads due to internal or external pressures to accomplish the task, instead of calling it quits in a timely fashion and being willing to accept the consequences — no matter what.
Similar to Matt Zuccaro’s ‘Land and Live’ campaign, I have been trying through my articles to offer tips and anecdotes to my readers with hopes that when faced with a major decision, they might recall something
I have written, causing them to break a link in an error chain and bring everyone home safely. Doing so honors the ‘sacred trust’ your passengers give you; by implication they say, “I trust you with my life.”
I reviewed past articles I have written over the years and have listed the ones I feel perhaps could have had relevance in this latest crash if the pilot had read them, remembered them, and acted on them. You can access these articles on the
rotorcraftpro.com website. They usually begin on page 10 or 11 in each issue. Just click on “MAGAZINE” and scroll down.
• Sept. 2012 “The Power of Crew Resource Management”
• Nov. 2012 “En Route Decision Point” • Feb. 2013 “Lessons Learned in the Flight Simulator”
• Aug. 2013 “CRM: the Last Line of Defense”
• • Sep. 2013 “This is Stupid”
• Dec. 2013 “Nine Hazardous Attitudes” •
Jan. 2014 “Four mental tools to keep you alive”
Feb. 2014 “Qualities of a Professional Operator”
• Feb. 2012 “CRM Tips for the Single Pilot”
• Mar. 2015 “The Wrong Stuff: my near-fatal IIMC event as a HAA pilot”
• Jan/Feb 2016 “Risk Resource Management”
• Jul/Aug 2017 “Are you a good role model?”
• Sep/Oct “Becoming a good role model” (e-mail from a pilot where he went IMC)
•
Nov/Dec “Integrity: your Biggest Asset”
• May/Jun 2018 “You are Safety’s Gatekeeper!”
• Mar/Apr 2019 “Just Say NO!” • Jan/Feb 2020 “A Case Study NTSB report — Iowa Crash human factors”
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