Pilots missed two vital warnings in helicopter drama that left Macca and wife 2ft from death
THE pilot of a helicopter carrying Sir Paul McCartney and his wife Nancy missed two urgent warnings that he was seconds from crashing.
The aircraft then avoided hitting treetops near the couple’s East Sussex home by just 2ft, according to an investigation into the incident.
The pilot, who had become ‘spatially disorientated’, dramatically swung the chartered Sikorsky S-76C to safety with seconds to spare.
His co-pilot was so convinced they were going to crash that he ‘momentarily’ lost the ability to speak during the drama.
Sir Paul, 72, and his 53-year-old wife, Nancy Shevell, were returning from London after they had attended the launch of a vegetarian cookbook written by Sir Paul’s eldest daughter Mary in May 2012.
In treacherous weather, the pilot was attempting a night landing on a helipad encircled by woodland.
A full investigation carried out by the Department of Transport’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) found that neither pilot heard two audio warnings.
The first said ‘LOW TERRAIN’, meaning they were 30 seconds from either the ground or an obstacle, in this case the treetops. The second message, ‘WARNING TERRAIN’, was issued when they were 20 seconds away. Both alerts also flashed on the controls. But despite the ‘warnings that the helicopter was approaching the ground, the flight crew were not aware of these warnings’, concluded the AAIB report.
The report reveals the terrifying drama in the cockpit before the second of two aborted landings.
As they approached the helipad, the pilot ‘switched the landing lights on, but the glare from the falling rain in front of the helicopter prompted him to switch them off again’. The co-pilot later recalled telling the pilot that, at this point, they were below the ‘safety altitude without sufficient visual references’.
They pressed on ‘even though he believed that the commander’s actions were flawed’. Eventually the pilot decided it was unsafe to land and tried another approach.
The report said: ‘The co-pilot, who was monitoring the instruments, saw that the helicopter was descending and began to speak to highlight this to the commander.’
Seconds later he saw the altimeter ‘winding down towards zero extremely quickly’ and then found himself ‘momentarily unable to continue speaking, expecting the helicopter to crash’. But the pilot,
‘recognising that the helicopter was approaching the treetops, began an aggressive go-around, flaring the helicopter and increasing power’.
The pilot eventually landed safely after diverting to Lydd Airport in Kent, 15 miles from the McCartney home near Rye. The £5million nine-seater helicopter was chartered from Air Harrods, which charges about £3,000 an hour and describes itself as the ‘leading London-based business aviation service provider’. Tony Blair is a client.
A spokesman for the firm said last night that it co-operated fully with the investigation. Sir Paul’s spokesman declined to comment.