Gold Coast mid-air heli crash.

[Hvr]

Multiple paramedic crews are on scene at what the Queensland Ambulance Service is describing as a “major incident” involving two helicopters.

‘Unthinkable tragedy’: Four dead after helicopters crash near Sea World

Investigators are racing against the tide on Tuesday as they look into the collision, with rising water levels set to swallow the remnants of the chopper if it isn’t retrieved.

www.smh.com.au

'Massive bang': Multiple people feared dead after helicopter crash on Gold Coast

Multiple people are feared dead after a helicopter crash near Sea World on the Gold Coast. There are reports two helicopters may have collided. Several Victorian holidaymakers witnessed and heard the incident unfold on Monday afternoon and rang 3AW to explain the situation. “There was a massive...

www.3aw.com.au

A developing story.

 

[RooFlyer]

From The Oz on-line

Witnesses reported the Sea World helicopters collided in the air, with one onlooker saying “one was just torn apart, the other managed to land safely”.

A woman said she saw one of the aircraft lift off from a sandbar opposite Sea World and smash into the underside of the other.

Photos from The Oz

 

[Saab34]

Condolences to all involved. 2023 off to a bad start.

Both helicopters appear brand new only delivered a few weeks ago. They seem
Black in colour, perhaps the pilots could advise, is darker harder to see?

 

[Quickstatus]

Twitter video showing the approach of the 2 helix but not the moment of collision.
The heli which managed to land had its front plexi? canopy destroyed

 

[tgh]

The chopper that survived and landed seems to have been extremely lucky

 

[Milefest]

Condolences to all involved. 2023 off to a bad start.

Both helicopters appear brand new only delivered a few weeks ago. They seem
Black in colour, perhaps the pilots could advise, is darker harder to see?

Not a pilot but the collision occurred in uncontrolled airspace. I don't think gold coast airspace starts until 1500'?

They should have been communicating on a common frequency to share location, altitude, intention etc. Not exactly sure what happened here

 

[Quickstatus]

darker harder to see?

Don't know, but it's a well known fact that unless you look, you don't see - in a very technical sense (and speaking generally and not finger pointing). When we are in the simulator (not airline but in my line of work) it is always surprising how well qualified and well trained people can miss glaring items even when it's right in front of them with bright flashing lights.

Situational awareness is key here and the problem with SA is that you don't know you don't have it or that it's deteriorated until something bad happens. The opposite of SA is fixation or tunnel vision. But it can be improved with training.

 

[jb747]

They seem Black in colour, perhaps the pilots could advise, is darker harder to see?

Any colour can be hard to see, depending upon the background and lighting.

Not a pilot but the collision occurred in uncontrolled airspace. I don't think gold coast airspace starts until 1500'?

Controlled airspace has nothing to do with it.

They should have been communicating on a common frequency to share location, altitude, intention etc.

I expect that they were.

 

[justinbrett]

Not a pilot but the collision occurred in uncontrolled airspace. I don't think gold coast airspace starts until 1500'?

It would not have helped if it was in controlled airspace (unless they were operating at an airport that required take off / landing clearances to the pad). Even if the pad was within the Control Zone (TWR area) all ATC can do is pass traffic. They're not within visual range at that altitude and radar will be useless. Two way comms between the aircraft is much more effective than running through a third party (ATC) on the other side of the Gold Coast.

It was same company aircraft in CAVOK, and the Chief Pilot was the one who died.

I for one can't begin to speculate on the cause(s). These incidents usually have a number of factors, we'll have to wait and see. I doubt it's as simple as just a loss of SA.

 

[SCM]

Can't believe something like this happened. I myself have taken a helicopter for a flyover tour at the gold coast, and never in my dreams would I think such a risk even exists.

 

[Saab34]

Looks like 7 got hands on the crash footage from inside the landing aircraft.

If the landing aircraft pilot was aware of any departure aircraft, surely his eyes would be out the left also, seems very fixated on forward vision. We need need to wait until the final report comes out with what radio comms took place. I wouldn’t expect that for 12 months.

Certainly is very sad that those back passengers had eyes on the other helicopter , certainly appears like an avoidable impact should the crew had seen it at the same time, at least 8 seconds there.

 

[Quickstatus]

fixated on forward vision

I wont comment directly but I know in my line of work it is very easy to become complacent/perfunctory.

For example blood transfusions require 2 people to check becore administration. After a while of zero incidents, 2 people checking becomes perfunctory - an action or activity carried without real effort or cognitive interest. They read the checklist but they are not checking. They look but they dont see....

Then there is the Get-there-itis. Its been a long boring day with repetitive uninteresting activities. Just a few more cases to do... nearly there... the focus becomes not the here and now but the knockoff time, going home. Because the going home is much more interesting. Cut corners to get there, and the corners have been cut before and nothing happened.

Multiple repetitive sensory inputs. Eventually these are not perceived. You listen but you don't hear it. You look and it's in your visual field, but you don't see it. To perceive anything, you need to listen, look and then process the inputs. As I said, we can simulate situations like this and it is never surprising that people look and listen, they see the ECG flatline but they dont see it. They are listening but they don't hear the alarms going off like a banshee.

Add in fatigue into the mix. Fatigue becomes more prominent with boredom, and repetitive tasks without a break such as driving a car from long distances without a break.
Also Hangry - the well known condition of hungry and angry.

Commercial imperative. Need to keep going because the company depends on it and after all there are many paid passengers waiting - in our case patients in the waiting list.

Put i all together and this is where Situational awareness comes into play - the ability to see the big picture. Situational awareness requires active cognitive processing and significant cognitive bandwidth. Not just looking out the window but processing all the inputs from whatever you are supposed to be looking/listening for. That is why our cardiac arrest teams always has someone who does nothing but process all the information coming in and the shots. The person doing the chest compressions will not have the cognitive bandwidth to maintain situational awareness.

Can 1 pilot do everything that is required - maintain situational awareness, while flying in uncontrolled airspace, multiple takeoffs and landings with the pressure of other passengers waiting to go up, maintaining visual separation with other aircraft, plus all other the requirements of operating an aircraft (I dont mean the actual flying)?? And maybe no toilet or coffee break?

Not saying any of this is applicable here. But thats just a general/lite view of why things go wrong when they are not supposed to.

 

[albatross710]

The north Gold Coast area is on a busy CTAF with quite a few airfields plus aircraft like me doing northly over water beach runs at 500'. Sea World choppers (and everyone) are making calls to be seen. Details on the area can be found here Gold Coast procedures overview

In the news/twitter video posted by SAAB34 I don't like the way the rear PAX is leaning forward in an agitated fashion and distracting the landing (surviving) pilot and some situation that makes the camera drop down.. I guess information will be revealed over time.

 

[Quickstatus]

I don't like the way the rear PAX is leaning forward in an agitated fashion and distracting the landing (surviving) pilot

Another view

Don't disturb the surgeon, they are busy. all the while the patient is bleeding out. The surgeon must know about the bleeding. Bad assumption.
Nowadays we encourage people to speak up. We don't care if you are the hospital orderly. if you see something that is concerning, speak up.

The pasengers have headphones, But they did they use it, or did the passenger want to say something but they did not want to be too distracting, so they don't assertively make their views known. Sort of like the nurse who sees something wrong, but won't speak up or they speak up but in a feeble way, because they are not empowered to do so and they think they might be wrong so they tone down their assertiveness. Too many unknowns

 

[albatross710]

Let's wait and see.

 

[Franky]

The north Gold Coast area is on a busy CTAF with quite a few airfields plus aircraft like me doing northly over water beach runs at 500'. Sea World choppers (and everyone) are making calls to be seen. Details on the area can be found here Gold Coast procedures overview

In the news/twitter video posted by SAAB34 I don't like the way the rear PAX is leaning forward in an agitated fashion and distracting the landing (surviving) pilot and some situation that makes the camera drop down.. I guess information will be revealed over time.

If we're talking about the same video, I believe the passenger was not a distraction to the pilot when he tried to alert him. Given the time frame, had the passenger done nothing, the collison was going to happen in any event.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Technically, the landing aircraft has priority, and seems to have been enough separation, but things happen. Very unfortunate. Seems inconceivable that one pilot didn’t see the other and the danger.

 

[Saab34]

The passengers might not have any voice function on the headset. We did a helicopter flight in Hawaii and it was listening headsets only.

 

[oz_mark]

If we're talking about the same video, I believe the passenger was not a distraction to the pilot when he tried to alert him. Given the time frame, had the passenger done nothing, the collison was going to happen in any event.

Probably true, it looks to me the other heli was in an unfortunate spot where it couldn't be seen by the pilot.

 

[jb747]

If we're talking about the same video, I believe the passenger was not a distraction to the pilot when he tried to alert him. Given the time frame, had the passenger done nothing, the collison was going to happen in any event.

It's a pity the passenger didn't see, or react a bit earlier. He certainly wasn't a distraction.

Technically, the landing aircraft has priority, and seems to have been enough separation, but things happen.

Not really. One aircraft had just taken off, and the other was roughly on crosswind or downwind. The rule applies to aircraft in the final stages of landing (i.e. finals). Give way to the right would apply here, as would the higher aircraft giving way to the lower. But, this only works if the aircraft are sighted.

The bit that intrigues me is why they (Sea World) had their approach and departure paths set up so that they crossed at the same height. I wonder how constrained they were by local noise issues.