Chris Cline, Billionaire - Helicopter Crash *Bahamas

Bahamas not Jamaica, flight was at like 2am from some island north of grand Bahamas to ft lauderdale. Someone on the flight was sick and they were headed to the hospital. That’s all I’ve heard so far
 
The helicopter was a Leonardo AW139, the same model which crashed outside the Leicester City football stadium last October, killing club owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and four others.

Cline's daughter was also a victim, and it's apparent from the identification of the others they were all her friends. What was supposed to be a fun holiday weekend has turned into a terrible tragedy.

What a horrible nightmare for the families.
 
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3393RP said:
The helicopter was a Leonardo AW139, the same model which crashed outside the Leicester City football stadium last October, killing club owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and four others.

Cline's daughter was also a victim, and it's apparent from the identification of the others they were all her friends. What was supposed to be a fun holiday weekend has turned into a terrible tragedy.

What a horrible nightmare for the families.
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Augusta Westland 139

You don't want to be that kid that gets laughed at.
 
SToL said:
Augusta Westland 139

You don't want to be that kid that gets laughed at.
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Uh huh. I'm well aware of who made the aircraft.

"AgustaWestland was a helicopter design and manufacturing company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Leonardo S.p.A. (previously Finmeccanica). Since 2016 it has been merged in Leonardo where it became the company's helicopters division under the Leonardo Helicopters brand."

I suppose the point can be argued, but then again, I don't need to win the internet.
 
iu

This is an internet search pic. Not actual helicopter.
 
3393RP said:
The helicopter was a Leonardo AW139, the same model which crashed outside the Leicester City football stadium last October, killing club owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and four others.
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The Leicester one was a 169 which is quite a bit smaller.

AW169 - "Weighing roughly 4,500 kg and accommodating 7-10 passengers, ... and the much larger 6,400 kg 15-seat AW139"

although

"a decision was made early on for the AW169 to share a large level of commonality across both components and the cockpit configuration with the larger AgustaWestland AW139"

Can't see how many components can actually be the same? Maybe my vision is not so good?

Thanks wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AgustaWestland_AW169
 
Possum said:
This is an internet search pic. Not actual helicopter.
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Strangely, I thought, there are NO images of the aircraft on t'interwebbies. There is an industrial scale network of spotters who photograph every aircraft that moves and post it. I have several times put a registration number into google and poof! there are photos.

Not this time.
 
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N884 said:
No helicopters, no skydiving.
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I did one jump when I was young and stupid. It was actually pretty fun. Nowadays I have a rule where I don’t partake in activities where a single point of failure results in immediate, unavoidable death.

Bungee jumping is definitely out. That doesn’t even look fun.
 
At the risk of AC Q-B’ing, I have to start with the 2:00 departure idea. Was the flight somewhat hastily thrown together for the medical reasoning at hand?

No doubt tragic as any, condolences to family & friends.
 
sourdough44 said:
At the risk of AC Q-B’ing, I have to start with the 2:00 departure idea. Was the flight somewhat hastily thrown together for the medical reasoning at hand?

No doubt tragic as any, condolences to family & friends.
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I thought the same. Add to it night flight over water.

I always wonder abut things like this. If it were me I'd have a full medical team with adequate facilities on the island. You're a billionaire, why not?
 
Bobanna said:
Or, call-up a full (chartered) MEDEVAC from Fla., and let them rush the patient...we'll meet you at the hospital in the morning.
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Do you think there is FL medevac operator that would be able to launch a 100nm overwater mission to an uncharted heliport in a foreign country without prior notice and planning ?


The man had an IFR equipped twin engine helo with autopilot sitting on his helipad and a crew of two type rated pilots whom he trusted working for him. The idea that somehow using an outside operator who had never been to his place would have been the better option is well, odd.
 
weilke said:
Do you think there is FL medevac operator that would be able to launch a 100nm overwater mission to an uncharted heliport in a foreign country without prior notice and planning ?


The man had an IFR equipped twin engine helo with autopilot sitting on his helipad and a crew of two type rated pilots whom he trusted working for him. The idea that somehow using an outside operator who had never been to his place would have been the better option is well, odd.
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Perhaps, but it is an option, along with a fully-staffed emergency hospital or clinic (cost is no object?).
If the "IFR equipped twin engine helo with autopilot sitting on his helipad and a crew of two type rated pilots whom he trusted working for him" was such a perfect solution, why did it end-up crashed in 16 feet of water?

And I'm pretty sure an operator may have been available to do this flight (again, cost not being an object).
 
Bobanna said:
Perhaps, but it is an option, along with a fully-staffed emergency hospital or clinic (cost is no object?).
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You mean he is supposed to build a hospital next to his island retreat for the off chance that one of his guests gets sick ?

If the "IFR equipped twin engine helo with autopilot sitting on his helipad and a crew of two type rated pilots whom he trusted working for him" was such a perfect solution, why did it end-up crashed in 16 feet of water?
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Your guess is as good as mine on why they crashed. You know, someone should do an investigation.

And I'm pretty sure an operator may have been available to do this flight (again, cost not being an object).
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What do you base that belief on ? That you can make everything happen if you just wave enough money at people ?
 
Yeah, I really would want to get emergency treatment from a doctor and nurses who’ve been sitting doing nothing on an island when an active hospital full of staff who treat people 24/7 is an hour away.
 
Bobanna said:
I
.I have not been able to verify type-ratings for two pilots (a requirement in this helo, I believe. I find the second pilot referred to as a "mechanic."
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This has been proven false. There were two highly qualified pilots in the front office.
 
Bobanna said:
No, I wasn't suggesting "(waving) enough money at people" would solve the problem, but, rather, there are commercial medical helicopter agencies available in Eastern Fla. that could accommodate this mission (at some price).
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You are very optimistic.

I have not been able to verify type-ratings for two pilots (a requirement in this helo, I believe.
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Both type rated. Both with a date of issuance for their last plastic card on the same day in 2017.


I find the second pilot referred to as a "mechanic."
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Erroneous local reporting, corrected since.

What isn't known is the nature of the medical emergency,
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Like it makes a difference. It was decided that she had to go to the mainland. One of the other young ladies in the helo had just finished her nursing boards the day before, so while that gives her very limited clinical experience, she still was in a much better position to advise her friend and her dad than all of us in the peanut gallery.

and what was the condition of the flight-crew at the moment of a 2:00 am rushed departure.
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We have no evidence to suggest that the departure was rushed. There is also no evidence that suggests that the condition of those two was any worse than the condition of any on-call medevac pilot woken up by a 1:30 page from his operations center.
 
weilke said:
You mean he is supposed to build a hospital next to his island retreat for the off chance that one of his guests gets sick ?
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Why not? I certainly would have had a capable, staffed medical facility on the island. There's a lot of zeros in "billion". I like being alive.

PS I also would have had at least two fully staffed helicopters (ONLY if I couldn't build a runway and have a fixed wing option) with one crew on night watch. I would have covered every conceivable scenario.
 
NTSB docket is open now. No report yet.

https://dms.ntsb.gov/pubdms/search/...Row=28&StartRow=16&order=1&sort=0&TXTSEARCHT=

Apparently helicopter was probably working OK. I'm not going to attempt to repeat informed comments other than a couple of quotes.
https://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/623218-aw139-crash-bahamas-7-killed-23.html#post10867645

Various posters on pprune say:-
"Extraordinary. Ignoring the whole flight conduct for now - the fact that the PIC describes that they’re making the same mistake as G-LABL just before they hit the water!" [G-LBAL?]

"if you read the CVR and FDR reports I don’t think you need much more."

"The conclusion is, they made up the plan as they went along and eventually flew a serviceable helicopter into the water and killed everybody on-board. Knowing they were doing the same thing as somebody else who met a similar fate."
 
*reads witness statements*
*shakes head*
'sigh'
 
I did read through the whole thing. I was kind of taken aback as well.
 
I read through the CVR as well as the toxicology reports.

Makes me wonder if they tried to engage the AP before the minimum A/S engagement speed and didn't catch that it was not engaged. Increasing the collective would increase the pitch down and increase the airspeed.

Having flown helicopters of that size, you would typically engage the altitude aquire and nav hold along with the IAS hold to establish a good climb if in IMC conditions. The autopilot would do the rest.

The toxicology report stood out -
P1 - 55mg/dl in the blood = 0.055 BAC
P2 - 11mg/dl in the blood = 0.011 BAC
 
k9medic said:
The toxicology report stood out -
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FYI: body postmortem ethanol levels to do not equate to live body BAC levels due to various decomposition processes and especially those recovered from water. Plenty of info on this.;)

Curious. Who did you fly 139s with? MSP?
 
k9medic said:
I read through the CVR as well as the toxicology reports.

Makes me wonder if they tried to engage the AP before the minimum A/S engagement speed and didn't catch that it was not engaged. Increasing the collective would increase the pitch down and increase the airspeed.

Having flown helicopters of that size, you would typically engage the altitude aquire and nav hold along with the IAS hold to establish a good climb if in IMC conditions. The autopilot would do the rest.

The toxicology report stood out -
P1 - 55mg/dl in the blood = 0.055 BAC
P2 - 11mg/dl in the blood = 0.011 BAC
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I believe some of that can be from the decay process.
 
Boone said:
I believe some of that can be from the decay process.
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There is information in the docket on the 'chain of custody' of the bodies. They were pulled out of the wreckage by a local fisherman, stored in the fishing boat, transferred to the military boat, bagged and then shipped to Freeport. This is not a 'from the trauma bay to the cooler' situation. While the forensics guys can make some sense out of different levels in blood, liver and eyeballs, given the long period of 'warm storage', I wouldn't make too much out of those ethanol levels.
 
I've spent an entire hour in my life in a helicopter, as a passenger. The thing that really stood out to me from the CVR transcript was all the talking. Seemed like a very disorganized and chaotic environment.
 
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