Colins helicopter accident

[driverace]

Colin McRea,s helicopter accident was caused by the pilot himself,says the Enquiery,held as to the cause of the accident and deaths of the 4 persons,being carried on board.
It says he was doing unnecessary low altitude flying and ,exercises .
The family say they may never know the real cause of the crash.

[lee bishop]

Over confidence and a willing audience can unfortunately cause unnecessary deaths all to easily, especially when it comes to aircraft. A colleague of mine had his second mid air collision this weekend! Neither his fault, and the first one resulted in the deaths of two people.

[lee bishop]

Just seen on the news he didn't have a current licence to fly at the time of the accident !
Reminds me of the steve hislop heli crash, he wasn't rated on the helicopter he went on to crash in!

[graham John]

Colin McRae blamed for fatal helicopter crash




Clockwise from left, Mr McRae, his son Johnny, Ben Porcelli and Graeme Duncan died in the crash





Rally car champion Colin McRae has been blamed for causing the helicopter crash in which he died along with his five-year-old son and two family friends.
A fatal accident inquiry found the crash, near his family home in Lanark in 2007, happened because he carried out unnecessary low-level manoeuvres.
It also found that Mr McRae's flying was "imprudent" and "unreasonable".
In a statement, the McRae family said they "still believe we will never know what caused the crash".
No permission
Mr McRae, 39, his five-year-old son Johnny, the boy's six-year-old friend Ben Porcelli and Graeme Duncan, 37, all died when the aircraft came down near the McRae family home in Lanark on 15 September 2007 as they flew home from a trip to see a friend.
“Start Quote

Low-level flying in such difficult terrain, was imprudent, unreasonable and contrary to the principles of good airmanship”

End Quote Sheriff Nikola Stewart
The inquiry had heard from Karen and Mark Porcelli, the parents of Ben, who said they did not give Mr McRae permission to take their son in the helicopter.
Sheriff Nikola Stewart, who heard the inquiry over 16 days at Lanark Sheriff Court, concluded that the deaths could have been avoided if Mr McRae had not engaged in low-level flying "when it was unnecessary and unsafe to do so".
In her written determination, the sheriff concluded: "The deaths and the accident resulting in the deaths might have been avoided had Mr McRae not flown his helicopter into the Mouse Valley.
"Such a precaution would have been entirely reasonable. There was no necessity to enter the Mouse Valley. There were no operational or logistical reasons to enter the Mouse Valley.
"Mr McRae chose to fly the helicopter into the valley. For a private pilot such as Mr McRae, lacking the necessary training, experience or requirement to do so, embarking upon such demanding, low-level flying in such difficult terrain, was imprudent, unreasonable and contrary to the principles of good airmanship."
The helicopter crashed near Mr McRae's home in September 2007
The ruling states that the accident happened when, due to an "unknown occurrence", the aircraft deviated from its intended flight path and crashed into trees lining the side of Mouse Valley.
The aircraft was in powered flight at the time of the crash and Mr McRae had attempted to recover from that unknown incident.
These attempts, the sheriff said, were unsuccessful because of the position and speed of the helicopter within Mouse Valley and the ensuing restrictions on opportunities to land the helicopter or fly it to safety.
Such options would have been available to him had he "adhered to rules of good airmanship and desisted from flying in the valley at low height and high speed", she said.
'Unsafe' flying
The sheriff stated: "It would have been a reasonable precaution to refrain from flying helicopter G-CBHL into Mouse Valley wherein the pilot engaged in low-level flying when it was unnecessary and unsafe for him to do so, and whilst carrying passengers on board."
As part of the hearing, the sheriff and lawyers involved in the case visited the woods where the Eurocopter Squirrel aircraft crashed.

We still believe we will never know what caused the crash” End Quote Jimmy McRae Colin McRae's father

One of the crash victims, Mr Duncan, filmed much of the outbound and return flights on his personal camcorder and some of the footage was recovered and included in the inquiry hearings.
Sheriff Stewart said the footage indicated that the helicopter was being flown "at unnecessarily low heights".
"He (Mr McRae) undertook significant manoeuvring at low level and the helicopter seems to have encountered significant g-loading as a result, to the evident enjoyment of his passengers.
"The episodes of extremely low-level flying and the excessive manoeuvre parameters, particularly the descent into the valley by Larkhall, all as captured on the video recording, are indicative of an aircraft being flown imprudently, without due regard to the principles of good airmanship and in such a way that normal safety margins would be reduced."
To fly an aircraft in the UK, it is necessary to hold a pilot's licence and a valid medical certificate, and to have the licence validated with the type of aircraft to be flown.
Sheriff Stewart found that Mr McRae did not hold a valid flying licence or a valid "rating" for the Eurocopter Squirrel helicopter.

• The FAI took place at Lanark Sheriff Court
• Evidence was heard over 12 days between 12 January and 26 May, 2011
• An inspection of the site took place and points along the flight path were visited on January, 2011
• Final submissions heard on 8 August, 2011
• Fatal Accident Inquiry conclusions were published on 6 September

"He was, accordingly, in breach of article 26 of the Air Navigation Order 2005 when he flew his helicopter on September 15 2007 and should not have flown that machine at that time," she said.
The sheriff's findings go further than an Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) report, published in February 2009, which found no cause could be positively determined into the tragedy.
In a statement, Mr McRae's family said they still believed the cause of the crash could not be determined.
His father, Jimmy McRae, said: "We still believe we will never know what caused the crash but we were never in any doubt as to Colin's prowess as a fine pilot.
"Everybody knows from Colin's rallying career that safety is always an issue and that his reactions and eye and hand co-ordination were world-class."
He said his family had wanted the inquiry to recommend that private aircrafts should be fitted with a flight data recorder.
He said: "Had a flight recorder been fitted to the aircraft, it may have been possible to determine what occurred in the final seconds of the flight and what actually caused the helicopter to crash.
"This would prevent uncertainty as to the cause of the crash and allow lessons to be learned from tragic accidents such as this."
Mr McRae said he hoped the family would be able to "move forward" following the findings.
The McRae family's solicitor, Peter Watson, added: "Although Colin's licence was out-of-date, this played no contributory factor whatsoever to the accident."













cheeRS

[lee bishop]

The lack of licence didn't contribute to the crash, but it did contribute to their deaths, without a current licence he should have took the car........

[driverace]

Helicopter accident

The lack of licence didn't contribute to the crash, but it did contribute to their deaths, without a current licence he should have took the car........

I fully agree with your statement,in an earlier report,it was said that the rotor,clipped a fir tree quite near its top,which caused the helicopter to spin out of control, Colin had flown down to London in his Helicopter for some inspection ,the inspectors,were under the impression that Colin had only been a passenger,as they knew he had no current licence,but only found out later that he had actually been piloting the Helicopter himself.These things are not toys.
A guy i met once, who owned the Helicopters used in all the filming for the Anneca Rice Challenges,told me that 99% of all Helicopter crashes were pilot errors

[Aled]

Terrible waste

[yodi]

Has the report just come out or a programme on TV I missed?? Its been (allegedly) known in the business for a while he was flying, he had a license but wasn't current etc

Also flying to fast and low in bad weather

Waste of life in an unecessary manner imo.

[FOR24D]

Still the main man for me in a rally car .
Very sad , young lives

[flyingpilot]

Colin McRea,s helicopter accident was caused by the pilot himself,says the Enquiery,held as to the cause of the accident and deaths of the 4 persons,being carried on board.
It says he was doing unnecessary low altitude flying and ,exercises .
The family say they may never know the real cause of the crash.

Very silly man and a sad loss.
The Squirrel heliccopter is a serious bit of kit, a lot of the militray and emergency services around the world use them and for training too.
Not an aircraft to go show boating in.

[grum]

http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/FAI41.html

[Sharpy_G]

still a very sad occurence
even more so when such young lives are lost

lesson for us all ?
got to 'rein it in' when you have your kids with you, after all, they are the most precious cargo you will ever carry

[Gordy]

Just saddens me to see those lads faces so young and innocent there's no way any of us would go out to risk our children's lives but humbles me at how things can go wrong so quickly.

[KL]

Very silly man and a sad loss.
The Squirrel helicopter is a serious bit of kit, a lot of the militray and emergency services around the world use them and for training too.
Not an aircraft to go show boating in.

As I read this I hear a Squirrel from RAF Shawbury passing too low over my house, yet again misjudging the gently rising north slope of the 160m hill I live on.
Given the licence situation, this final report might now generate the same serious legal aftermath as Graham Hill's 1975 aircraft crash.

[willid1]

Has the report just come out or a programme on TV I missed?? Its been (allegedly) known in the business for a while he was flying, he had a license but wasn't current etc

Also flying to fast and low in bad weather

Waste of life in an unecessary manner imo.

The AAIB report came out some time ago, very through investigation - as you would expect.

http://www.aaib.gov.uk/publications/bulletins/february_2009/eurocopter_as350b2_squirrel__g_cbhl.cfm

David