Hawaii Helicopter Crash

Haha, yeah VMFA-122 are the Werewolves now, something about having giant Christian crosses plastered all over the jets bombing bad guys in the holy land didn't go over very well, so we went back to our original WWII name. I mean, does it really matter what we're called if we are trying our level best to mort ya? Such is the way of things now...
 
USMCF18 said:
Haha, yeah VMFA-122 are the Werewolves now, something about having giant Christian crosses plastered all over the jets bombing bad guys in the holy land didn't go over very well, so we went back to our original WWII name. I mean, does it really matter what we're called if we are trying our level best to mort ya? Such is the way of things now...
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Oh yeah, forgot about that one. Same dude who protested the name Crusader is the same who is protesting the name Crusader in my old Army unit right now. Won't be long before they give in to political correctness and change it to something else.

Anyway, once again welcome to POA. Think we only have one other Hornet guy on here and he flys F-16s now. Think it's NFWS stuff.
 
Thanks! Sorry to hijack the thread fellas. Vortex ring state seems like no place to be, perhaps he was trying to effect an emergency landing with some sort of malfunction and things snowballed quickly.
 
USMCF18 said:
Thanks! Sorry to hijack the thread fellas. Vortex ring state seems like no place to be, perhaps he was trying to effect an emergency landing with some sort of malfunction and things snowballed quickly.
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Good thing is, he survived, so we will know exactly WTF happened...
 
^^ same link. :)

I'm starting to wonder if I have flown on the specific helicopter that went down earlier this year, need to go look up the N-number from old vacation photos.
 
Interesting that when the pilot made the distress call he told ATC he was heading for Ford Is but the controller told him instead head for a prison and hold there. ATC might be a contributing factor here, but the pilot should have did what he thought was best, declared an emergency, landed on Ford Is, and maybe there would not have been a crash. Just speculating which I shouldn't, but that caught my eye.
 
mscard88 said:
Interesting that when the pilot made the distress call he told ATC he was heading for Ford Is but the controller told him instead head for a prison and hold there. ATC might be a contributing factor here, but the pilot should have did what he thought was best, declared an emergency, landed on Ford Is, and maybe there would not have been a crash. Just speculating which I shouldn't, but that caught my eye.
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Where is that audio? I didn't hear anything about holding at a prison.
 
mscard88 said:
Interesting that when the pilot made the distress call he told ATC he was heading for Ford Is but the controller told him instead head for a prison and hold there. ATC might be a contributing factor here, but the pilot should have did what he thought was best, declared an emergency, landed on Ford Is, and maybe there would not have been a crash. Just speculating which I shouldn't, but that caught my eye.
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This is normal for the North 4 Arrival into HNL. Aircraft head towards Ford Island then to Navy Marine Golf Course and then too HNL. Most likely there was multiple traffic taking off/landing which is why she told the pilot to hold at the prison.
 
I think you can rule out settling with power unless he induced it trying to land...which is when it happens the most...High Gross/High DA...normally descending with high power settings....hope everyone makes a swift recovery...
 
She totally missed what was happening or couldn't get out of traffic mode, it appears.

She hadn't switched the brain over to emergency mode before he was already in the water.
 
Warlock said:
I think you can rule out settling with power unless he induced it trying to land...which is when it happens the most...High Gross/High DA...normally descending with high power settings....hope everyone makes a swift recovery...
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Yep, I don't think anything was driving that rotor when it hit the water.
 
Velocity173 said:
Ok, well I didn't hear her tell the pilot to hold at the prison after he said he was going down. That was prior. Did he report any malfunction to tower prior to the 22:00 mark?
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Negative, it was after she told him to go to the prison and hold.
 
Yep, pretty much along for the ride the last 20 ft there. With a shaft / sprag clutch failure he wouldn't have made the beach even if he wanted to.

Those logbooks are going to get scrutinized big time.

Pilot made for a survivable crash but without underwater training for pax, it's understandable that everyone isn't going to get out.
 
Pilot doesn't mention another change in noise (clearly heard in the audio) at that last 20 feet. That's kinda interesting. Seems like he's describing the grinding and the bang well before he arrived over the final crash site.

Sounds like he already had his hands full with the auto and change of plan, and maybe doesn't even remember hearing that last one.

And stuff was still failing on the aircraft.

Somewhere I read the helicopter was built in 1974. Not that it has anything to do with the accident, I just never really thought about helicopters as being "old" like my airplane.

Don't know why but my brain doesn't think of helicopters that way.
 
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