Fuel Starvation (bell Mediums)

[skyward]

Any views on the NTSB crash investigation of East West Helicopters Ltd. 1999, 214B crash. Fuel starvation was the determination, but the reason is a real eye opener.

[Helilog56]

Skyward....perhaps you want to read the thread...".How Low Do You Go", back on feb.13th/05.....might be interesting reading for you.....Cheers

[justfly]

you mean this TSB of Canada report http://www.tsb.gc.ca/en/reports/air/1999/a...75/a99p0075.asp ?

 

the hunt on the U.S. NTSB site, while distracting, was unsuccessful!

[beltdrive]

2.6 Survivability

Neither front-seat occupant was wearing his available shoulder harness. Because of the severity and high vertical component of the impact forces in this accident, it is unlikely that the use of the shoulder harness would have prevented fatalities.

 

Given that vertical-reference flying necessitates upper-body freedom of movement, dismissal of the shoulder harness is almost inevitable. It is not known if the crew's rejection of the shoulder harness was deliberate or a continuation of a habit they had developed while heli-logging. It is likely that a crew's regular rejection of shoulder harnesses will diminish their awareness of the safety advantages of shoulder harnesses and, at the same time, reinforce a less-than-ideal safety practice. Accident investigations and research conducted by the TSB have consistently shown that the use of the shoulder harness portion of the seat restraint system is effective in reducing or preventing injury during moderate-impact forces.

 

 

 

 

Brings up the question u wear them????

Ill do all the time....in the Helicopter.....Just does not feel right any more hanging out the door without them....

ALways get in Sh@T with my wife not wearing the sitbelt in the car....need some recurrent there.....a ticket will do...

[407 too]

beltdrive, WEAR IT, you will probably need it in a car before you will need it in a helicopter, a LOT more bone-heads on the ground than in the air

[beltdrive]

ya I know...making a point of wearing that thing.....lol

[Guest bag swinnger]

Yeah belt drive, I picked up on that as well in the report, and was thinking the same thoughts.

I personally do not wear shoulder belts while longlining in the 206 or astar. it restricts me to the point of not being able to do the job, but I try to wear them as often as posible when doing other flying.

I once had heard that some medium drivers do not wear seat belts at all. and wonder if there is any truth to that?

[mtnhopper]

I"ve spent lots of hours longlining and use my shoulder harnesses all the time. If you can learn to work with them on then you don't have to try to remember them when your doing normal flights. I cant imagine not wearing them on the line out of all places were your going to need all the help you can get if something quits thats the place

 

 

My 2 cents :up:

[twinstar_ca]

ok..maybe this is a little simplistic, but can the airframe manufacturers not design the inertial reel so that it has enough shoulder strap that you can lean forward appropriately??

 

god knows, we've all read enough reports where the harnesses were not being used because they restricted the ability to lean in the window enough... am i missing something here??

[beltdrive]

i just wear them normal in the long dog and Astar.....I lock them and just hang in the seatbelt......works reallt nice ein the Astar with the lock....