Sad news.....
Sad news.....
Would appear the tail hit the top of the island. Looks like a case of bad visibility causing pilot error.
You may be right, the cloud base was 300 ft or less and Blackrock is about the same height, but they flew a few hundred metres north of it about two minutes beforehand and the lighthouse is functioning. Could both pilots and all the systems on board have missed it?Originally Posted by SteveB
I now find it hard to believe that they could have tried to land at Blackrock having mistaken it for Blacksod because they were doing 90 knots at the last point on their recorded track. That seems to be way too high a speed for a landing approach. It also means two experienced and highly trained pilots made a very basic navigation error by selecting or inputting the wrong lighthouse on their flight computer. It's not impossible but is it really probable either?
If they were using Blackrock as a reference or turning point and the helicopter had a major malfunction just as they were about to pass it again they may have lost control or attempted an emergency landing on the very small helipad. (9 metres). There are holes in this scenario too but it's the best fit at the moment. There was a near disaster with a S92 on an oil platform in the North Sea last December when one was landing on a rig. The tail rotor failed. If it had happened a couple of minutes sooner the thing would probably be at the bottom of the North Sea. All S92s were grounded for safety checks in January as a result.
I just hope they can recover the missing crew and the flight recorders before the wreckage gets broken up and scattered.
Last edited by Prickly; 23-03-17 at 07:29. Reason: IMO
thays really sad,brave people
If it's down to pilot error it'll be all the more tragic.
“We’re gone”
Poignant last words of co-pilot.
http://news.sky.com/story/were-gone-...ealed-10836347
Bratsimpson1 (14-04-17)
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