Helicopter crashed into crane in London

reply to post by ThePeaceMaker


In a helicopter, you would fly lower to where you could see visual cues. Higher gets you in the range of air traffic that you don't want to be near, as you are a hazard to them, and they might not see you in the fog. But if he's over the city he can only fly so low before he violates regs.

From what I understand he was trying to fly along the Thames and follow it to a landing area, as other helicopter flights routinely do.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Hey again Zaph .. Thanks for clearing that up I honestly didn't know and just for the record I wasn't in anyway questioning the pilot as I've read about how skilled he was .. He'll be a far better man than ill ever be god bless him

reply to post by ThePeaceMaker


Oh I didn't think for a minute that you were. It was a legit question. Helicopters, especially around high traffic areas and controlled airspace, usually try to stay low enough they don't have to be constantly controlled, so they stay out of ATCs hair, until they're ready to land.

As for the buildings, I believe ICAO regs are the same as FAA regs. Unless you have permission, such as a flyover at a game or something, you are required to stay 500 feet above the tallest building in the area. In a flyover situation, you are required to stay 250 feet above the tallest building. I believe those were the altitudes, it might be 500 over a city, and 250 over a town, but I'm pretty sure that was right.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Yeah I presumed you thought I wasn't doubting the pilot but you know what ATS can be like, reading text sometimes people get the wrong idea.

Appreciate the answers again Zaph time for bed now I think work in 6 and half hours

Originally posted by ceetee

Originally posted by Dutcheagle
reply to post by ceetee

 

Since when is it your job to be the hallway monitor of ATS

if you think the topic is not living by the rules you can press the alert button.Also your insults doesnt add anything to this topic if you read carefully you would have know that he though it was a ufo because a friend reported to him that it wasnt a helicopter.I am not claiming that i believe it was a ufo, i just dont see why you got to be so pathetic.

edit on 16-1-2013 by Dutcheagle because: (no reason given)

its my right as a user here to react to useless threads. ATS is now full of badly researched garbage. I react like this because I'm sick of trawling through pages of threads that are deliberately misleading. I also added corrections to the deliberate falsifications in the first post

I no longer have that friend, he obviously knew how to push my buttons, sorry for wasting your time, all your time, I'll take myself away now....stupid aliens

reply to post by ThePeaceMaker


Thoughts are that he was busy changing frequency of his radio as he was talking to Heathrow Zone and needed to call up Battersea Heliport to ask permission to land. The type of tranceivers use a couple of switches to select the frequency rather than a preset channel and so requires a higher degree of concentration.

Heres the REAL conspiracy angle behind the crash:

The Metropolitan Police have been conducting investigations into child sex abuse by Senior Politicians, Media types and Celebs during the 80s.
They announced the investigation named Operation Fairbank this weekend whic focusses on alleged abuse at the Elm Guest House in Barnes

en.wikipedia.org...
www.independent.co.uk...

In this thread...a helicopter flown by a certain Mr Barnes crashed into St George Wharfe, killing a man on Nice Elms Lane.
St George Wharfe is locally known as Elms heights.
www.wandsworthguardian.co.uk...

A warning displaying power to anyone involved in Operation FairBank/FernBridg, news burial or random co-incidence???

reply to post by Jukiodone


Or, and I know I'm going out on a limb here, but sometimes accidents are just accidents and don't have a hidden meaning behind them.

The pilot was holding over the Thames, and received word that Battersea would accept an approach, and was told to change frequencies to the approach frequency. He made a right 180 to head west to the heliport and struck the crane at 800 feet according to radar data. He was returning from an attempt to pick up a client at Elstree, where he was unable to land, and decided to try Battersea due to weather.

www.flightglobal.com...

It seems for a highly trained and experienced pilot, he screwed up by the numbers that day.

www.flightglobal.com...