Clutha pilot ‘dangerously misled’ by flight manual
● FAI hears pilot may have thought he had longer to land aircraft
The pilot of a helicopter which crashed into a Glasgow city centre pub may have been “dangerously misled” by an error in a maintenance manual, a fatal accident inquiry (FAI) has heard.
Pilot David Traill, two crew members and seven customers in the Clutha bar died when the aircraft crashed on to the roof of the building on 29 November 2013.
Marcus Cook, senior inspector at the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), was questioned by Donald Findlay QC, representing the family of victim Robert Jenkins, at the inquiry on its third day. Mr Findlay asked Mr Cook if the pilot would have three to four minutes from one engine on the helicopter flaming out due to fuel shortage and the second doing so.
Mr Cook said it would not be minutes, but kilograms of fuel.
He added: “The maintenance manual is incorrect. It would be three to four kilograms hence about a minute.”
Mrcooksaidhedidnotknow how the mistake occurred and the maintenance manual had since been changed.
Mr Findlay asked: “If the pilot Captain Traill knew about the gap and understood it to be three or four minutes, he had been badly misled?
“If he knew,” Mr Cook replied.
“And dangerously misled,” Mr Findlay added.
Mr Cook said: “Your words.” Mr Findlay asked: “Is there
0 Marcus Cook makes his way to the fatal accident inquiry
anything wrong with my words?”
“No,” Mr Cook replied. He said it was “probably but maybe unlikely” that the pilot was aware of the manual as it was for maintenance.
He said the pilot would have had 40 seconds to react when the first engine flamed out.
When the second engine followed, there would have been less than ten seconds to react.
He said there were indications
the pilot attempted to have the helicopter autorotate to land with some degree of safety, but this did not work.
Mr Cook said the first low fuel light, of five fuel warnings, would have come on when the pilot was around Bothwell, which is about 11 road miles from Glasgow city centre, and at that time he would have been expected to land within ten minutes.
The purpose of the FAI is to determine the cause of the deaths, establish whether they could have been prevented and enable the sheriff to make recommendations that could prevent fatalities in similar circumstances.
The inquiry is expected to involve around three months of evidence spread over six calendar months this year.