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Beatrix_-_Kiddo t1_jb4ox2r wrote

Do helicopters ever not crash? Seems like there's a helicopter accident every month these days.

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Gockel t1_jb4p6h8 wrote

helicopters are the motorcycles of the sky

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Denziloe t1_jb4qqxa wrote

The accident rate of helicopters is much lower than cars.

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ppitm t1_jb529xf wrote

Most helicopter accidents don't involve scratching some paint on the parked car behind you.

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TwiceYourSize t1_jb4vrpf wrote

So what’s the number of accidents per car and what’s the number of accidents per helicopter? You comment seems kinda obvious to me since there are way more cars then helikopters. I bet the chance to survive a car crash is bigger then a helicopter crash tho

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higgy87 t1_jb4xypv wrote

They said rate, not number

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TwiceYourSize t1_jb4y9nn wrote

Thx for pointing that out, I guess that’s my non-native English failing to understand.

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WeSnawLoL t1_jb59hot wrote

To be fair a huge reason for this is that there are less things in the sky than on a road. A road has more obstacles, some of those obstacles are occupied by complete idiots, while a pilot licenses is expensive and offers a lot of training.

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Riegel_Haribo t1_jb8dw8i wrote

To be fair, a helicopter has one big obstacle below it that causes the most fatalities.

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heroinsteve t1_jb5ry7e wrote

I mean it’s still disingenuous to compare imo. There is significantly less air traffic than cars have to deal with. A better comparison would be planes and helicopters as they both use air space and are far closer in trips than cars.

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S-Markt t1_jb4vsbo wrote

one major problem is that you can do a lot of crazy things with them, but non of those is as simple as it looks. hovering near a powerline for example is risky, chasing cattle in the australian bush too. our airrescue pilots here in hamburg managed to land old hueys on streetcrossings without ever crashing.

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slashthepowder t1_jb5f3pk wrote

The other thing you need to look at is the jobs helicopters perform. I have heard of a ton of helicopter crashes when they work on power lines.

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antantoon t1_jb5isgi wrote

Well this is a video from the helicopter crash in Australia a few months ago, not a new crash.

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Alan_Smithee_ t1_jb5xx7g wrote

Yes, it’s a repost.

And why is the pilot in the left seat? I thought helicopter pilots sat on the right.

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Tdagarim95 t1_jb5jorb wrote

Unfortunately, the things helicopters can do outweigh the dangers associated with them. Planes can glide if something goes wrong. But something as little as a loose nut on just the right component in a helicopter immediately kills everyone on board.

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PoxyMusic t1_jb61y7j wrote

Helicopters can glide also, sort of. Autorotation is the way you can still land when you have a complete engine failure in a helicopter. You harvest the remaining energy in the rotor for one last landing.

I guess a crude analogy would be, you immediately put it into neutral, then throw it into reverse at the right moment.

In the best case scenario, it's safer to lose your engine in a helicopter than an airplane, because at least you get to choose your landing area, and you aren't landing with 60 knot forward speed.

IANAP, just an enthusiast so grain of salt.

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Tdagarim95 t1_jb62bxb wrote

Absolutely. All of that is dependent on if the tail rotor and the driveshaft is still intact though.

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itypicallyjustlurk00 t1_jb6o0oz wrote

Fun fact, no anti-torque is required during autorotation. No tail rotor required! The drive shaft is also largely unnecessary due to the sprag clutch.

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wascilly_wabbit t1_jb4lga3 wrote

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-64171191

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octagonlover_23 t1_jb811w2 wrote

Fucking sea world at it again

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LeastDescription4 t1_jb90921 wrote

What did Sea World do in the past? They don't exactly have much controversy.

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quote88 t1_jbanl5g wrote

I believe it's the enslavement of sentient non human beings in tanks that are a fraction of the size of their daily distance they cover.

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BatXDude t1_jb4o2h7 wrote

How did the passenger see it before the pilot?? Wtf, were his eyes painted on?

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Woodwardg t1_jb4rtkj wrote

I'm not a pilot, but one would imagine that he has a ton of interfaces in front of him which he's using to maintain speed / trajectory / elevation / what have you. the pilot isn't necessarily concerned with what's going on 360 degrees around him with the naked eye.

why none of those interfaces are capable of warning him that another craft is barreling towards him? that's my question.

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[deleted] t1_jb4yfnm wrote

[deleted]

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nicethingyoucanthave t1_jb52noo wrote

What do you think about the guy gently tapping him on his shoulder? Every time I see that, I think that the tap only further distracted the pilot. It drew the pilot's attention to the passenger instead of out the window.

the passenger points at the other aircraft, but the pilot has to turn almost all the way around just to see the finger.

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[deleted] t1_jb5907i wrote

[deleted]

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Commie_EntSniper t1_jb5m9sv wrote

Had the passenger pointed when he had the initial instinct instead of waiting and tapping... but then again, you trust your pilot to do hir job.

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JGCities t1_jb5lbjf wrote

Based on description of the accident the guy in this copter is probably to blame as he struck the tail rotor of the other copter.

>Less than a minute after take-off, the departing helicopter (registration VH-XKQ)[7] was struck in the tail by an arriving helicopter (registration VH-XH9)

Pretty much a rear end collision. The people in the first copter had no clue what was about to happen.

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DontCallMeMillenial t1_jb7m3yp wrote

Also - both helicopters were giving sightseing tours for the same damn company.

They should know they're operating within the same airspace and be cognizant of each other's positions.

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BatXDude t1_jb4s825 wrote

Isn't there alarms usually?

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take_care_a_ya_shooz t1_jb4st7x wrote

A tourism helicopter has nowhere near the amount of automations/alerts that a commercial jet does.

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ktElwood t1_jb4vx06 wrote

Wouldn't they have ADS-B Transponders and some sort of air space monitoring would tell them

"Watch the fuck out"

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CrashSlow t1_jb4zbns wrote

ADS-B is a catch all term. ADS-B is mostly US thing, ADS-B differs by country and in Canada there is no requirement for it, no idea what oz has for requirements.

There are different levels and kinds of traffic warning system that work off transponders of all kinds. Problem is you have to set the alert range on them. Thats easy in an airplane, just warn if anythings comes within 5miles. If it goes off all the time you reduce the range or end up muting it. They are far from perfect in slow moving aircraft.

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whooo_me t1_jb5r320 wrote

According to the report the other helicopter was ascending from underneath- maybe the console partially obscured the pilots view while the passenger in the back could see it more easily?

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Thoraxekicksazz t1_jb4ii2k wrote

Where’s the rest of the video? They dead?

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themagicbong t1_jb4inj8 wrote

Looking at other tweets, someone linked a news article. The people we are seeing survived. 4 people in the other helicopter that we didn't really see died, everyone on board as far as I can tell. Tragic. I feel for their families. Happened in Australia.

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forum4um t1_jb5ai8b wrote

Absolutely insane that they all survived on one of those. A slow plummet to your death from that high up? Yikes.

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JGCities t1_jb5g0op wrote

The people in this copter were fine as nothing hit their blades.

The poor people in the other one though...

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just_some_sasquatch t1_jb5u5yb wrote

Another reason to hate Sea World.

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LeastDescription4 t1_jb95mas wrote

What was the first reason?

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just_some_sasquatch t1_jbamx5a wrote

Well there are many, but the main one is poor treatment of captured Orcas leading to the deaths and/or horrible injuries of multiple employees. In that respect Sea World is basically the Tiger King of Orcas. You should watch a documentary called Blackfish if you can find it. Supposedly the bad PR from it caused them to stop doing Orca shows and breeding them in captivity.

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LeastDescription4 t1_jbaxewt wrote

Sea World (Villiage Roadshow) has never had an Orca show. You might be mixing it up with the USA's SeaWorld. This is an Australian company with no affiliation with the USA one with a similar name.

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just_some_sasquatch t1_jbayafd wrote

Ah! Okay I definitely just assumed SeaWorld was the same company as Sea World. My mistake. I've done the classic "everything is American everywhere" that we US citizens often do.

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LeastDescription4 t1_jbb4ipm wrote

No worries. Australia has a bad habit of having the same named companies that are entirely unconnected (Target, Kmart, Burger King, Seaworld)

The Burger King one is particularly silly...

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IamNICE124 t1_jb6ls6j wrote

Jesus Christ that killed four people in the other helicopter..

Is this something would be identified as both pilots being at fault?

I’m not an expert at all, so I’m not casting judgement on either because I genuinely don’t know, just curious.

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octagonlover_23 t1_jb81wv2 wrote

Long time helicopter pilot here (4,000 hours) - I can assure you this was absolutely operator error on both parts. Modern helicopters are equipped with all sorts of sensors for both weather and unnatural objects. That little screen right below the "co-pilot" woman's chin (clearly not a co-pilot but that term just branched from planes) is actually the display for this type of proximity info.

So first case - that should've caught it, but the pilot was being absentminded and checking out the views.

Second, the flight plans for both of these crafts could not possibly have both vehicles in that place at that time, which is the other reason I can tell that this is operator error.

TL;DR, I'm not a heli pilot and I just made all this up

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cmilla646 t1_jb6ndpt wrote

I don’t have many irrational fears but colliding helicopters has always been right at the top of the list. It feels like it should be impossible but here we are.

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Mitthrawnuruo t1_jb50nde wrote

That sucks. Over water. Nope nope. Nope.

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eulynn34 t1_jb5ko3h wrote

Yea, that probably sucked.

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rhalf t1_jb6gt7i wrote

There are more helicopters in the sea than boats in the sky.

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Cardioth t1_jb7ryg7 wrote

My mates friend died in this accident. :(

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buttonions89 t1_jb4vlt7 wrote

That pilot had terrible situational awareness.

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