I suspect this one won’t make many headlines in the USA, as it involves fewer passengers and took place in the middle of the North Sea. From a technical standpoint, however, it seems at least as difficult to have pulled off successfully as the recent USAirways ditching.
Yeah, another good job. In their favour you can put a helicopter down with much less forward movement than an aeroplane. Going against them, poor weather and it was probably really really cold!
Not only do the pilots practice this, but everyone who goes out to the rigs has to take the safety course where they get a dunking and have to escape. A little different from the Airbus.
Actually, from a technical stand point, this was probably harder than what Sully Sullenberger did; You see, a helicopter has this nice, big, rotating thing atop it, full of energy, and just waiting for a chance to liberate said energy by thrashing the aircraft (and occupants) into lots of little bitty pieces, should any portion of it touch the ocean before it winds down.
Helos frequently, in fact most often, turn turtle once they hit the water, and it’s damned hard to escape once that happens. This is the reason for the really scary and somewhat dangerous ‘ditcher’ training at US Naval Aircrew school. Add to all this, that the pilot was riding a crippled bird, and was landing in choppy seas, and well, he (or she) just earned major hero points, and a free extra life.
Quartz, I’ve taken this course myself (although not the five-day North Sea version, with survival suits and all), and while having the training indeed makes a difference, a night ditching in choppy seas is not what anyone would call a cakewalk.
This is why pilots can earn everything they have ever been paid in about 30 seconds…
So what’s the crash drill? You bail out at 30 ft so you can be away from the rotors? Or does everyone bail out after it augers in?
Just in case I ever go to Hawaii, and go on one of those cheesy helicopter tours, and it loses the engine just outside the surf line off the North Shore on a big day, so I swim through a broken window and surf my floatation seat cushion to safety, but it happens to be right in the middle of the the O’neil World Cup surf contest, and I get totally tubed on a gnarly churning 40 foot monster on national TV.
Y’know, in case something like that were to happen.
Bailing out of a helicopter while the lades are spinning is a bad idea (ask Vic Morrow).
I went through dunker training at Pensacola NAS years ago. It’s hard enough to de-ass an inverted simulated helicopter in a swimming pool. Doing it for real, in cold water and bad weather, has gotta raise the pucker factor to the limit.
Nope, you stay aboard until you are down and the rotors have stopped. If it’s an oilfield flight, you’ll be wearing an inflatable life vest (can’t fly over water in a heli without it), but for fuck’s sake whatever you do, don’t pull the inflation rings until you leave the helicopter. You won’t just trap yourself, but anyone trying to get out behind you.
Most, if not all helicopters in offshore service have emergency floatation devices, so if you manage to land soft enough not to burst them, and if the machine doesn’t turn over immediately, you are much better off staying in the cabin until rescue. OTOH, if you manage to make it though a hard impact and/or overturning, you will need to exit, but probably will not be able to leave until the cabin is almost fully submerged. You will most likely be spatially disoriented and unable to see anything, so you’d better be able to follow the drill you were taught about finding your way to the door by feel. Youwere taught that, right? If not, your chances are pretty slim.
Cheers.
These procedures were what I was taught:
By ‘taught’, I mean I was directed to read a section covering ditching. Over-water flights were prohibited by the FBO for insurance reasons.
One thing I heard from a crash trainer talking on the radio about this case was the overriding objective is not to get wet. Once you get wet everything gets exponentially harder. You do everything you can to avoid getting wet. The idea is to jump straight from the chopper to a boat.
Inflating the life vests inside increases the chance someone will get wet because you start blocking exits and people need to find other ways out.
I’ve also done the Navy dunker training, several times. Hated it every time. The dunker itself is not so bad. The drop is easy, the turn upside down is easy, although a bit nerve-wracking waiting for the water to come up to your face and timing that last breath. Waiting for all the motion to stop underwater isn’t bad, either. Getting out isn’t bad. Really, just aim for the window or hatch, and follow your bubbles.
What I hate is the blindfold (actually blacked-out goggles). Not being able to see changes everything. They teach you some tricks to help you out once submerged, but really, once you unbuckle, it’s every man for himself down there. I’ve had to almost fight my way through kicking boots and thrashing elbows. Not a fun time.
And on preview, yeah, you never inflate anything (vest or raft) inside the cabin. That’s just common sense.
Yeah, I was wondering about the doors. Obviously you can’t open them until there’s water on both sides. If the doors were closed and the cabin was reasonably well sealed you could be 100 ft down before that happens. I like my odds at 10 ft a lot better. So I would want to kick them away before touchdown.
On the other hand I’m depressingly familiar with the effects of cold water. From that angle you want that extra minute to get wet slowly.
So my shrewd plan is to cling to my seat and scream like a girl.
Does staged entry have any effect on hypothermia? That’s certainly what I’d be more worried about in the North Sea in February.
There’s certainly some debate as to what a lot of pilots would do in an actual ditch (where removing doors is a possibility). The books usually say to keep them on because it helps with structural integrity should the aircraft impact hard and cartwheel. However, removing them beforehand definitely ensures a way out should the aircraft and passengers survive.
The odds of an intact aircraft sinking with air inside the cabin (and thus preventing opening of hatches) are, I’d think, slim.
Doors? What are these ‘doors’ of which you speak? 
I haven’t flown since I left California. Down in that warmer climate doors were rarely desired. (Especially in a Robbo, as they don’t have much shoulder/elbow room with the doors on.) To remove the doors on an R22 or a Schweizer a clip must be removed from the hinge. I don’t know how one would jettison a door from inside. Maybe larger helis have a D-ring or something, but I’ve never flown one.
And no worries about having to wait for the cockpit to flood. The doors aren’t exactly airtight or watertight. But as I said, the FBO prohibited over-water flights. (Well, you could fly over water off the coast. One of the VFR paths across LAX was off the coast at 100 feet or below, and you were over water flying up and down the beach. But you weren’t allowed to fly to Catalina.)
Many aircraft have emergency hatches that should be much easier to open than the whole door. If I’m unlucky enough to have to ditch I’ve got an overhead exit in the cockpit if the side exits prove to be unsuitable.