Full use of autopilot ‘ may have prevented’ fatal crash

A HELICOPTER that ditched in the sea with the loss of four lives might not have crashed if all the available automation had been used, an inquiry has heard.

An Air Accidents Investigation Branch ( AAIB) inspector told a fatal accident inquiry ( FAI) that “we wouldn’t all be sitting here now” if a different mode of autopilot had been used.

Two crew and 12 passengers on the Super Puma L2 survived when it ditched on its approach to Sumburgh Airport, Shetland, at 6.17pm on August 23, 2013.

But 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.

The FAI heard the helicopter was being flown in three axes autopilot mode – which controls pitch, roll and yaw – as it approached Sumburgh. However the full four axes autopilot, which also controls speed, was not being used.

The standard operating procedures, laid out by the helicopter’s operator CHC, specified using three axes mode on the approach.

Alison Campbell, a senior inspector with the AAIB, said the helicopter was “perfectly entitled to fly in three axes” and that was not regarded as bad practice.

However Ms Campbell, a qualified plane and helicopter pilot, said: “I think it would have been better for the aircraft to have used all the automation available to the crew, it would have helped them and reduced their workload. I think the AAIB’s view is that had the crew used four axes rather than three axes, we wouldn’t all be sitting here now.” The inquiry continues.