3 dead including pilot and guide, 3 injured. Father and sons trip. Horrendous for family and friends
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Horrendous indeed.
When helicopters go down the chance of survival is slim.
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Winddancer wrote:
..When helicopters go down the chance of survival is slim.
Um, it depends how they crash, really. I've been close to a couple of serious incidents, and people walked away from both.
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Winddancer wrote:
Horrendous indeed.
When helicopters go down the chance of survival is slim.
Yeah, afaik it's a relatively less safe way to travel relative to plane aviation, etc. Just dodgy tbh!!!
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Have just found out that I know one of the deceased. Sending my condolences to the loved ones of all the passengers.
Three people survived, so wild guesses about cause and survivability seem a little tactless.
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@gilo, …that’s really grim. Such a difficult time for a small community.
Many on here may know that the aviation industry immediately logs accidents and begins the process of analysis. There is a deep commitment to getting lessons out to aviators. So people indeed should and can avoid speculation and simply defer to industry experts:
I think it's amazing that three of them made it out alive.
It seems the 3 that survived had their belts off and were able to get out or were thrown from the heli before it slid down the mountain triggering an avalanche in which it was buried. How the heli slid off is not yet clear and the subject of the investigation.
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@BobinCH, …that’s a terrifying description Bob.
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Utterly horrific.
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
@BobinCH, As you know, AG has an excellent safety record - they do all the building materials lifting around our place in the Summer - such experienced pilots. A collapsed nosewheel on a Beechcraft is the only other incident I know of.
@Origen, the Mount Hood crash shows how sudden and violent the crash can be, after the precision of the approach and the relative peace of the hover. The mt hood heli entered the ‘curlover’ of air off the ridge - where the uplifted air on the windward side turns into a set of vortices on the lee side.
Note I am not saying at all that this was the mechanism which caused the AG accident - we need to wait for the official report and eyewitness accounts for that.
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@BobinCH, How it slid off is quite odd , as it should have hovering with the skids just kissing the snow as they were about to exit . Only last week I was dropped with one skid on the ground and the other off hovering off the ridge . Normal practice as you will know once landed is guide jumps out unloads the skis from cage holds the door open for the 4 in the back to unbuckle and jump out before helicopter shoots off it’s a matter of about 60 or seconds without the engine stopping . If the helicopter landed and had the engine off they only land on safe flat areas . The slid off explanation is strange it must be some form of malfunction . Helicopter accidents in heliskiing are extremely rare .
The report in the first post is suggesting strong föhn wind on the north side of the Alpine ridge. This crash appears to have happened on the largely, north facing slope of the Petit Combin. Föhn and aviation are never a great mix. It would have been a very strong and gusty wind, with big down drafts. Sad for all involved.
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Horrendous
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Actually, looking at the wind report, it wasn’t too strong by the time of the accident. Probably not föhn related. Sorry
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The two lads who got pushed out are best mates with my friend's sons...who by coincidence arrive to stay with us in Verbier tomorrow.
The parents were in a second helicopter which saw it all unfold.
Imagine their experience ?!
The whole thing is so sad.
The people who died all had roots here, so many friends and family.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
What a lot of close connections.
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
@munich_irish, ....that sounds like a very quick thinking act of selfless bravery...
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
One of the dead is an Irish man in his 30’s, Irish media is reporting. So sad for all affected.
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Chilling… the 70yr old man fell in a crevasse in addition to falling down the face. It took them 7 hours to find him
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Bob that’s incredible. Thank goodness that the weather allowed a concerted search…and extraordinary dedication by the rescue services. Seven hours. Hypothermic I wonder? And an extraordinary distance to fall - a path which allowed rag-dolling in new snow rather than being hammered by mixed ground? But if that’s the track then there are some massive drops in there too…
I may be missing something, but presumably the drop off is on top? The crash site in the images seems to be a lot lower down the face. Did they crash on landing o or something else? If you put a blade down in those machines the front seat guys are most at risk.
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Also wondering where the decent is? Front face looks like a big no fall zone
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Mr Courage is certainly aptly named!
After all it is free
After all it is free
Moved to tears by his account.
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BobinCH wrote:
It seems they came in a bit too low and the rotor hit the edge of the face from this account. ...
Interesting. So they were trying to land... on that face? Perhaps it's not as steep as it looks.
I didn't really grok the account. The guys up front are at risk from the blades; the guide most. Putting a blade down is the usual problem... ugly but experience suggests mostly survivable so long as you're not half way down a cliff at the time.
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No they land on the top which is a big table top that can take 3 helis. Due to the poor viz the assumption is the pilot missed the top and landed too close to the edge
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