‘100 metres to go’ – but pilot missed alert that could have saved copter
THE pilot of a helicopter missed a final prompt that could have saved the aircraft from crashing and killing four people, an inquiry has heard.
Two crew members and 12 passengers on the Super Puma L2 survived when it ditched on its approach to Sumburgh Airport in Shetland at 6.17pm on August 23, 2013.
Sarah Darnley, 45, from Elgin, Moray; Gary McCrossan, 59, from Inverness; Duncan Munro, 46, from Bishop Auckland, County Durham; and George Allison, 57, from Winchester, Hampshire, died as a result of the crash.
Inspectors said the helicopter may have been ‘recoverable’ when the commander was told it was flying at 400ft and could not explain why he did not take action as standard operating procedures stipulated.
The fatal accident inquiry (FAI) heard that when the co-pilot gave the pilot the prompt ‘100 [metres] to go’ as they approached Sumburgh, which meant the helicopter was 400ft above the sea, he replied ‘Roger’ instead of ‘Levelling’ as expected.
Martin Richardson, QC, for the Crown, asked what significance the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) attached to the response to the prompt.
AAIB inspector Alison Campbell replied: ‘There are two significant factors to that “100 to go”.
‘The first is that the company’s standard operating procedures were for the commander to answer “levelling” and secondly for the commander, who was the pilot flying, to begin to level the helicopter.’
She added: ‘I can’t be certain but from that point it was possible that the helicopter was recoverable. Why the commander answered as he did we cannot explain, and why he didn’t action what he had probably done hundreds of times before, equally I can’t explain.’
She also told the inquiry that in a briefing which the commander Martin Miglans gave the co-pilot ahead of the flight, he did not tell him which autopilot mode he was going to use and how he was going to fly the approach.
Ms Campbell said this meant the co-pilot did not have a ‘full picture’ of what the commander intended to do and was ‘always playing catch-up’.
The inquiry also heard that the helicopter was not using all the available automation.
It was being flown in three-axis mode – which controls the pitch, roll and yaw – as it approached Sumburgh.
However the full four-axis autopilot, which also controls speed, was not being used.
Ms Campbell said the helicopter was ‘perfectly entitled to fly in three-axis’ but added: ‘I think the AAIB’s view is that had the crew used four-axis rather than threeaxis, we wouldn’t all be sitting here now.’
The FAI, before Sheriff Principal Derek Pyle, continues.
‘Not using all the automation’