What: Royal Brunei Air Force Bell 212 helicopter en route to Bandar Seri Begawan
Where: Brunei, Borneo
When: July 21,2012
Who: 11 passengers, 3 crew
Why: Twelve died in the crash in Kuala Belait on the north coast of Borneo island. Two cadets survived and have been hospitalized. They are reported to be in stable condition, one with afractured arm and an injured leg, and the other having undergone surgery.
The insurers have had months to move this case along.
They had months to compensate the families of victims. Have they done so?
Word is that they have not.
The one year anniversary of the crash is on May 12.
Look at what we have. No compensation.
Look at the debris field. Do we have spoliation of evidence? Common elements like weather wreak havoc on evidence. Just look at what rust does and you have a pretty good idea of the kind of details can be erased by weather. So if the evidence has been defaced by exposure to the elements, how might spoilation of evidence affect the case? No doubt it will result in a series of failed attempts. Failure to secure evidence. Inability to analyze degraded evidence. Obfuscated results.
For crash investigators, fresh evidence can be as easy to read as a book. Waiting until the evidence is unintelligible leaves us with no Rosetta Stone to help us get to the cause. Another missed opportunity to make aviation a little safer. Another missed opportunity to bring closure to the families who were immeasurably damaged by this crash.
Sun Express Germany flight XG-3264 made a crash landing at Stuttgart Airport, Germany, on July 31st.
The Boeing 737-800 en-route from Varna, Bulgaria, was on the taxiway when it failed to follow the turn and hit the grass between taxiway and runway.
The plane received minor damage.
No one was injured.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s decision on the Colgan Air Flight 407 crash is that the pilot responded inappropriately to the stick shaker, which led to an aerodynamic stall from which the airplane did not recover. The stick shaker only comes into play when the plane is already slow enough to stall. The plane fell 800 feet before crashing pointing northeast, away from the airport
The family of Ellyce Kausner has filed a lawsuit against Bombardier. Bombardier is the manufacturer of the plane involved in the crash. The suit charges that Bombardier was “negligent and careless” in the design of the plane by not providing more efficient internal mechanical warning systems.
Kausner was a 24 year old Jacksonville law student traveling to NY to visit family.
At least 19 other families have filed suits.
At the time of the crash, the automated “stick-pusher,” pushes the control column down in order to send the aircraft into a temporary dive so it can regain speed and recover from a stall but Capt. Renslow yanked back on the controls while adding thrust, manually overriding the stick-pusher.
Colgan Air, Clarence Center, NY, Accident Dockets
Time for Bombardier to step up to the plate. Although this has little to do with the pilot, who had flunked numerous flight tests during his career and was never adequately taught how to respond to the emergency that led to the airplane’s fatal descent. Maybe Ellyce would still be here if the warning systems on the Bombardier were simply better.
When the plane slowed down to a dangerous level, it set off the stall-prevention system, and the pilot performed the opposite of the proper procedure. So there were hiring and training issues involved too. And Captain Renslow had about 109 hours of experience, hardly enough to be pilot.
Even if procedures seem counter-intuitive, shouldn’t the pilot be aware of them?
Barring the inefficiency of an ill-prepared pilot, shouldn’t Bombardier have some kind of way to limit ineffective pilot responses?
When the hiring and training fails, and when the pilot fails, shouldn’t there be some kind of fail-safe within the plane? Even a copy of the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Not Crashing your Bombardier for pilots who flunked their last check write 16 months before and who apparently didn’t read the real manual?
What: Kananaskis Heli Tours Bell 206B JetRanger II sightseeing tour from Stoney Nakoda Resort and Casino to Bow Valley
Where: Canmore, Alberta
When: March 30, 2012 10:30 a.m.
Who: 1 fatality, 4 survivors
Why: A sightseeing helicopter crashed near Grotto Mountain near Banff National Park, Canmore, killing pilot Matthew Goodine of Prince George, British Columbia. The crash occurred at 10:30 a.m. Canadian Forces Base Trenton heard the emergency beacon at 12:30 and notified the mounties. EMS did not arrive until 2:45 and the pilot died while waiting to be airlifted to a hospital in Calgary. Rescue efforts on the remote back country mountain slope were hampered by high winds and snow, along with the rugged terrain. Rescue personnel rappelled from the chopper, and the two couples from Britain were airlifted in slings to be flown to hospitals.
It began to snow around 10:30 a.m., and that may have been a factor. Weather will delay the investigation as much as a week due to snowy forecasts. There is no black box.
What: Privately owned Cessna 401 en route from Riverside Kansas to Council Bluffs Kansas
Where: Thomas Road between 1900 & 2000 or 9 miles west of Chanute, KS
When: May 11, 2012 16:36
Who: 5 aboard, 3 fatalities
Why: The privately owned Cessna was en route to Council Bluffs when it told ATC it requested permission to descend to a lower altitude, then crashed near Chanute and caught on fire. The plane skidding 200 feet across a field before it hit trees.
23-year-old pilot, Luke F. Sheets, Garret Coble of Tulsa and Stephen J. Luth, 22 died in the crash according to Shawnee County Coroner’s Office-Topeka.
22-year-old Hannah N. Luce of Texas and 27-year-old Austin G. Anderson were injured. Hannah was hospitalized at KU Medical Center-Kansas City, KS and Austin at Christi St. Francis Hospital-Wichita.
Chanute is about 90 miles northwest of Joplin, Mo.
The plane crashed in a field east of Highway 75. Two of the five aboard survived the crash.
Pictured: Italy – Vigili del Fuoco Eurocopter AS-350B-3 Ecureuil
© Photo by Stefano Capuzzo
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Stefano Capuzzo
What: Helinka Eurocopter Ecureuil
Where: Loreto Province between Trompeteros and Saramuro Peru in the Corrientes River
When: 9:15 29 Oct 2009
Who: 2 fatalities, 2 injuries
Why: Pilot Hernie Cordova and Edgar Zevallo were killed; the survivors are Chugudaly Davila and Pedro Paredes Vela Junio.