Heli Crash Fyi

[DaveJensen]

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTV...hub=CalgaryHome

 

Clearly, a difficult time for the staff at the helicopter company. Kananaskis is the parent company to Icefield Helicopter Tours out of Cline River. Since 2005, the owner of the co rolled and wrote off a machine on a glacier; a pilot was over weight in the Ram (not us) and the tail rotor hit the water and rolled the machine; mechanical failure caused another machine to crash into Abraham Lake; now this pilot dies in this incident. I feel a moral obligation to point this out for your safety.

We stopped flying with the company in 2005, after many things peaked our concerns (doors opening mid flight while banking corners, rookie pilots making poor decisions, nearly getting fogged out near the peak of Mt Columbia, pilots getting lost and the subsequent fuel burn causing us to have to land in the middle of nowhere to wait for another machine to bring fuel, etc). Since we stopped using this company, the above accidents occurred, confirming our concerns. We have since been informed by CEOs trying to fly with the company that they cannot get life insurance policies that cover their flying activities with KH/IHT due to their track record.

If you wish to fly into the Ram or alpine lakes, there are other companies. This is why it is important to do due diligence and not just leap at the cheapest flight. Yes, accidents can happen to anyone which is why it is difficult to post this. But when these kind of thing happens systemically, it is best to say something.

[splasher5]

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTV...hub=CalgaryHome

 

Clearly, a difficult time for the staff at the helicopter company. Kananaskis is the parent company to Icefield Helicopter Tours out of Cline River. Since 2005, the owner of the co rolled and wrote off a machine on a glacier; a pilot was over weight in the Ram (not us) and the tail rotor hit the water and rolled the machine; mechanical failure caused another machine to crash into Abraham Lake; now this pilot dies in this incident. I feel a moral obligation to point this out for your safety.

We stopped flying with the company in 2005, after many things peaked our concerns (doors opening mid flight while banking corners, rookie pilots making poor decisions, nearly getting fogged out near the peak of Mt Columbia, pilots getting lost and the subsequent fuel burn causing us to have to land in the middle of nowhere to wait for another machine to bring fuel, etc). Since we stopped using this company, the above accidents occurred, confirming our concerns. We have since been informed by CEOs trying to fly with the company that they cannot get life insurance policies that cover their flying activities with KH/IHT due to their track record.

If you wish to fly into the Ram or alpine lakes, there are other companies. This is why it is important to do due diligence and not just leap at the cheapest flight. Yes, accidents can happen to anyone which is why it is difficult to post this. But when these kind of thing happens systemically, it is best to say something.

 

 

Thanks for the information

[Guest Sundancefisher]

very tragic all round. Lucky the passengers survived.

[halcyonsancta]

An interesting original post, and I must concur. Some of these smaller outfits put their pilots under tremendous pressure to fly. Pushing the regulatory limits and poor pilot judgement, combined with low pilot experience and sometimes less than ideal pilot ability and airmanship... well, it all adds up to a recipe for disaster. Throw in some bad weather or other environmental conditions and ...well you get the idea.

 

I've been flying professionally for a while. Flying aircraft is inherently risky. For the paying public trying to make a wise choice as to which carrier, or outfit, you use is fraught with difficulty. As a consumer you're a blindfolded tap-dancer in a mine-field.

 

Mr Jensen's advice is sound. On the flight deck our mantra with managment, who always want to pay us less and get us to do more is: "if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys". In the charming film of the classic Tom Wolfe novel "The Right Stuff" it's put even more succinctly: "No bucks, ($$$), no Buck Rogers". It's that simple and that complicated.

 

Suffice to say it's a very, very complicated issue. In the end, we place a lot of faith in the regulatory authority: Transport Canada, and their designated personnel who license the pilots and the engineers. If they support the strict adherence to high standards, that will help. The owners and business types who run some of the smaller outfits are under their own form of commercial pressure. Aircraft and their overheads are expensive. The machines don't earn income when they're parked on the ramp. But good character and sound, cautious judgement must prevail. This is what sorts the men out from the boys; and the survivors from those that are less fortunate.

 

After any serious incident, or accident, there's lots of blame dodging, on all sides. The true pros go the other way and gnaw away at the facts until they've gleaned the important lessons and identified the individual links in the chain of disaster. In order that this mishap pilot's death not remain senseless, we owe it to him and his people to not speculate on cause and wait instead for the outcome of the investigation by the proper authorities. Hopefully the hard lessons learned will be shared amongst those who have the most to gain: other pilots. The Transport Canada publication for general aviation and professional aviation has a nice quote to this effect:

 

Learn from the mistakes of others;

you'll not live long enough to make them all yourself...

 

I find myself praying, agnosticism be damned, for the safe deliverance of the soul of that young helicopter pilot. RIP.

 

 

[dutchie]

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTV...hub=CalgaryHome

 

Clearly, a difficult time for the staff at the helicopter company. Kananaskis is the parent company to Icefield Helicopter Tours out of Cline River. Since 2005, the owner of the co rolled and wrote off a machine on a glacier; a pilot was over weight in the Ram (not us) and the tail rotor hit the water and rolled the machine; mechanical failure caused another machine to crash into Abraham Lake; now this pilot dies in this incident. I feel a moral obligation to point this out for your safety.

We stopped flying with the company in 2005, after many things peaked our concerns (doors opening mid flight while banking corners, rookie pilots making poor decisions, nearly getting fogged out near the peak of Mt Columbia, pilots getting lost and the subsequent fuel burn causing us to have to land in the middle of nowhere to wait for another machine to bring fuel, etc). Since we stopped using this company, the above accidents occurred, confirming our concerns. We have since been informed by CEOs trying to fly with the company that they cannot get life insurance policies that cover their flying activities with KH/IHT due to their track record.

If you wish to fly into the Ram or alpine lakes, there are other companies. This is why it is important to do due diligence and not just leap at the cheapest flight. Yes, accidents can happen to anyone which is why it is difficult to post this. But when these kind of thing happens systemically, it is best to say something.

 

 

thanks Dave , nothing wrong with giving a honest opinion , as per everything in life these days , do your homework