Last week, the NTSB held a 4-hour meeting about the crash that killed Kobe Bryant and eight other people. The Sikorsky S-76 helicopter, operated by Island Express Helicopters, collided with hilly terrain near the city of Calabasas, California. The pilot and eight passengers were fatally injured, and the helicopter was destroyed by impact forces and fire.
In episode #177 of my Aviation News Talk podcast, I play clips from the meeting most relevant for General Aviation Pilots, and at the end I give five takeaways that all GA pilots can learn from this accident. You can find Aviation News Talk at: aviationnewstalk.com/blog for iPhone/iPad, or at aviationnewstalk.com/177 for Android and listening on a PC, or wherever you get podcasts.
The helicopter was not equipped with a flight data or cockpit voice recorder, nor was it required to be. The flight was an on-demand charter operated under the provisions of Part 135 to take the passengers from John Wayne Orange County airport in Santa Ana, California to the Camarillo, California airport for a basketball tournament.
The weather that morning included a widespread area of coastal clouds associated with a Marine layer, a stable humid air mass about one to 2000 feet thick, often characterized by stratus clouds at its top, with the potential for fog formation in some areas below. There were no hazardous conditions such as icing or thunderstorms.
The pilot flying was Island Express' chief pilot, and he had been flying in the area for 10 years and had logged about 8,500 hours. The flight departed at 9:07 and proceeded northwesterly across the Los Angeles metropolitan area at 9:20. The pilot requested to transit the Burbank Class C airspace, but ATC advised him to hold due to traffic. Weather in this area was reported as cloud ceilings, 1,100 feet above ground level with visibility two and a half miles. About 11 minutes later, ATC provided special VFR clearance to proceed through the Burbank and Van Nuys airspace.
Throughout this segment of flight, the helicopter was maintaining an altitude of about 500 feet above ground level, and it proceeded to the West out of the San Fernando Valley area. ATC advised the pilot that they would be too low for flight following, and they should contact Camarillo tower as they got closer. The pilot acknowledged, and the helicopter proceeded to the West following Hwy 101 toward an area of rising terrain at a speed of about 140 knots. About four minutes later, the pilot contacted ATC again and advised them that he was intending to climb to go above the cloud layers. A surveillance camera near Hwy 101 captured the helicopter about this time.
The helicopter had been flying about 350 feet above ground level, but during the transmission to ATC began climbing at a rate of about 1500 feet per minute, generally following the 101 in a slight left turn. During radio communications with ATC, the helicopter climbed through an altitude of 2000 feet above sea level, or about 1300 feet above ground level, by which point it was highly unlikely for the pilot to be able to maintain visual ground contact. The climb reached a maximum altitude of about 2,400 feet above sea level.
As the helicopter continued a left turn diverging from the highway, the controller asked the pilot's intentions, and he said he was climbing to 4,000 feet. However, by that time, the helicopter was in a tightening left turn and descending rapidly. This maneuver is consistent with a pilot experiencing spatial disorientation in limited visibility conditions.
Here are my five key takeaways for GA pilots.
- It doesn’t matter whether you’re a student pilot, private pilot, or instrument rated pilot. If you’re flying VFR, do NOT enter a cloud. Because if you do and lose control and have a crash, as this very high time accident pilot did, you’ll most likely die. I tell all of my student pilots and private pilots to stay out of the clouds…under penalty of death. And by the way there have been many VFR into IMC accidents that have happened to instrument pilots. Having an Instrument rating does help a little, but it doesn’t guarantee you’ll survive if you accidentally blunder into the clouds while flying VFR.
- Know how to use your autopilot, because it could save your life if you inadvertently enter a cloud.
- Before you take off, make a Plan B and a Plan C for what you’ll do and where you’ll go for different conditions you might encounter on your flight. Remember it’s better to land somewhere else and still be alive.
- Beware of plan continuation bias. Don’t just keep flying to your destination when things change. Choose the safest option available to you.
- Don’t ever let yourself feel pressure to fly, regardless of who you have on board the plane.
There are so many lessons to be learned from this accident, so please listen to this episode of my podcast. If you're unfamiliar with how to listen to podcasts, the easiest way to do it is to download one of our dedicated apps for your phone. Just go to the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store, and search for "Aviation News Talk." Or, click here for the dedicated app for iOS and dedicated app for Android. And podcasts are free, so they'll never cost you anything!
Comments