In the United States in the 1990s, the National Transport Safety Board undertook a special investigation into 34 Robinson crashes, all involving mast-bumping, and new rules were implemented, including increased training and experience requirements for pilots. is not available,” Patterson told the court. “In the meantime, accidents continue to occur and the footage and data that could assist. However, five years later, the Ministry of Transport is still working on the issue.
In 2016 TAIC recommended that in-flight visual and data recorders similar to a commercial airline’s “black box” be required in small aircraft. The Robinson R44 involved in a 2015 crash where two men were killed. Over The Top deputy standards pilot James Forward told the court the prohibition on practising the life-saving manoeuvre meant pilots would not be sure what action to take in the event of an unexpected low-gravity situation. However, the court heard that pilots had less than a second to react in low-gravity situations, and the controls in Robinson helicopters are known to be extremely sensitive. If pilots did encounter a low-gravity situation, they should apply aft cyclic, or push the control lever to the rear of the aircraft, the company said. The company said that even experienced pilots should never attempt the type of low-gravity manoeuvres that led to mast-bumping, even in training. Robinson Helicopter Company safety notices stated that low-gravity situations were almost always fatal, he said. (Video first published in November, 2016). Given the lack of an obvious cause, legal counsel Garth Gallaway told coroner Alexandra Cunninghame: “Lay people like me struggle to understand how these accidents with these devastating consequences can keep occurring.”Īs two more people die in a Robinson helicopter crash, a US lawyer representing crash victims and families labels the helicopter "unsafe and unairworthy".
The weather on the day of the 2015 crash was good, chances of turbulence were low, and the pilot and student had more than adequate experience and skills, the court heard. The inquiry took place in Queenstown over the past two weeks. However, many critics are concerned the measures do not go far enough, including Patterson, who pushed for a coroner’s inquiry into the crash that killed Combe and her son. It also made several recommendations, some of which the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) adopted, including new safety awareness measures for Robinson helicopters. TAIC responded by putting the helicopters on its watchlist, leading key organisations, such as the Department of Conservation, to stop using them. Pilot Damian Webster was killed when the Robinson R44 helicopter he was piloting crashed in Kahurangi National Park in 2014.
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