Abid
AR-1 gyro manufacturer
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2011
- Messages
- 6,059
- Location
- Tampa, FL
- Aircraft
- AR-1
- Total Flight Time
- 4000+ 560 gyroplanes. Sport CFI Gyro and Trikes. Pilot Airplane
On Aug 27th, 33 Years Ago... I had only been in the US living in a dorm at RIT for one year when I heard this news. I was actually learning to play one of SRV's solos on guitar from my guitar teacher ...
Authored by Kevin O'Brein
August 27, 1990…
Stevie Ray Vaughan (born October 3, 1954), three members of Eric Clapton's band, and the pilot were killed in a helicopter crash while trying to navigate through dense fog in Alpine Valley, Wisconsin.
Vaughan was 35.
On the morning of August 26, 1990, Vaughan told his band and crew members about a horrible nightmare in which he was at his own funeral and saw thousands of mourners. He felt "terrified, yet almost peaceful." Backstage after the show that evening, the musicians talked about playing together again, particularly with Eric Clapton for a series of dates at London's Royal Albert Hall in February and March 1991.
Moments later, Peter Jackson, Clapton's tour manager, said that the weather was getting worse and they had to leave soon. According to Double Trouble drummer Chris Layton, Vaughan's last words to him were, "I love ya."
Dew was settling on the windshields of the four helicopters waiting to transport the performers back to Chicago. Stevie Ray, his elder brother Jimmie Vaughan, and his wife Connie made their way to their reserved helicopter, a Bell 206B Jet Ranger ( a very capable helicopter), booked by Omniflight Helicopters and manned by Jeff Brown, a 42-year-old veteran pilot.
Peter Jackson, one of Clapton's tour managers let Vaughan know that three seats were reserved for himself, Jimmie, and Connie. Upon arrival, they discovered that their seats had been taken by members of Clapton's crew, agent Bobby Brooks, bodyguard Nigel Browne, and assistant tour manager Colin Smythe. Vaughan, wanting to get back to Chicago, asked Jimmie and Connie if he could take the last seat, saying "I really need to get back." They obliged and caught the next flight in Lake Geneva with Layton and Jimmie's manager, Mark Proct.
At 1 a.m., the helicopters departed in dense fog at two-minute intervals. Jeff Brown, the Pilot in Command, occupying the right seat guided the helicopter off the golf course, remaining at a high speed and slightly lower altitude than the others. It banked sharply to the left and crashed into the side of a 300-foot-high ski slope, about 0.6 miles (0.97 km) from takeoff. A classic case of spatial disorientation.
All on board were killed instantly. With no fire or explosion, the bodies and debris were scattered over an area of 200 square feet.
Nobody was aware of the crash until the helicopter failed to arrive at its destination the next morning.
At 7 a.m., an Air Force search helicopter, carrying sheriff's deputies, found the wreckage, which was 50 feet (15 m) below the summit of the hill. Shortly after, Clapton and Jimmie Vaughan were called to the morgue to identify the bodies. According to an autopsy report, Vaughan had suffered many unsurvivable injuries…a transection and dissection of the aorta, multiple depressed skull fractures, ruptured spleen and liver, along with fractures of the right thigh bone and ribs.
An investigation found that no drugs or alcohol were involved, and all victims had worn seatbelts. No equipment malfunction was found in the investigation.
Pilot Jeff Brown had many hours of experience operating the Bell 206B at night.
He had an instrument rating for flying airplanes in IMC (Instrument Meteorological Conditions), not helicopters. Helicopter pilots are general not extensively trained, experienced or current enough to fly in these conditions (ref. Kobe Bryant). Also, gyroscopes (the helicopters rotor system) want to carry their mass above them, i.e., they want to roll over…a particularly challenging aircraft for instrument flight.
The cause of the crash was that Brown lost control due to spacial disorientation caused by low visibility, lost situational awareness, entered an unintentional left roll and flew a perfectly good helicopter full speed into the hillside.
Another tragic case of pilots flying beyond their capability (Bill Graham, Kobe Bryant, SRV)…
This didn’t have to happen…
Authored by Kevin O'Brein
August 27, 1990…
Stevie Ray Vaughan (born October 3, 1954), three members of Eric Clapton's band, and the pilot were killed in a helicopter crash while trying to navigate through dense fog in Alpine Valley, Wisconsin.
Vaughan was 35.
On the morning of August 26, 1990, Vaughan told his band and crew members about a horrible nightmare in which he was at his own funeral and saw thousands of mourners. He felt "terrified, yet almost peaceful." Backstage after the show that evening, the musicians talked about playing together again, particularly with Eric Clapton for a series of dates at London's Royal Albert Hall in February and March 1991.
Moments later, Peter Jackson, Clapton's tour manager, said that the weather was getting worse and they had to leave soon. According to Double Trouble drummer Chris Layton, Vaughan's last words to him were, "I love ya."
Dew was settling on the windshields of the four helicopters waiting to transport the performers back to Chicago. Stevie Ray, his elder brother Jimmie Vaughan, and his wife Connie made their way to their reserved helicopter, a Bell 206B Jet Ranger ( a very capable helicopter), booked by Omniflight Helicopters and manned by Jeff Brown, a 42-year-old veteran pilot.
Peter Jackson, one of Clapton's tour managers let Vaughan know that three seats were reserved for himself, Jimmie, and Connie. Upon arrival, they discovered that their seats had been taken by members of Clapton's crew, agent Bobby Brooks, bodyguard Nigel Browne, and assistant tour manager Colin Smythe. Vaughan, wanting to get back to Chicago, asked Jimmie and Connie if he could take the last seat, saying "I really need to get back." They obliged and caught the next flight in Lake Geneva with Layton and Jimmie's manager, Mark Proct.
At 1 a.m., the helicopters departed in dense fog at two-minute intervals. Jeff Brown, the Pilot in Command, occupying the right seat guided the helicopter off the golf course, remaining at a high speed and slightly lower altitude than the others. It banked sharply to the left and crashed into the side of a 300-foot-high ski slope, about 0.6 miles (0.97 km) from takeoff. A classic case of spatial disorientation.
All on board were killed instantly. With no fire or explosion, the bodies and debris were scattered over an area of 200 square feet.
Nobody was aware of the crash until the helicopter failed to arrive at its destination the next morning.
At 7 a.m., an Air Force search helicopter, carrying sheriff's deputies, found the wreckage, which was 50 feet (15 m) below the summit of the hill. Shortly after, Clapton and Jimmie Vaughan were called to the morgue to identify the bodies. According to an autopsy report, Vaughan had suffered many unsurvivable injuries…a transection and dissection of the aorta, multiple depressed skull fractures, ruptured spleen and liver, along with fractures of the right thigh bone and ribs.
An investigation found that no drugs or alcohol were involved, and all victims had worn seatbelts. No equipment malfunction was found in the investigation.
Pilot Jeff Brown had many hours of experience operating the Bell 206B at night.
He had an instrument rating for flying airplanes in IMC (Instrument Meteorological Conditions), not helicopters. Helicopter pilots are general not extensively trained, experienced or current enough to fly in these conditions (ref. Kobe Bryant). Also, gyroscopes (the helicopters rotor system) want to carry their mass above them, i.e., they want to roll over…a particularly challenging aircraft for instrument flight.
The cause of the crash was that Brown lost control due to spacial disorientation caused by low visibility, lost situational awareness, entered an unintentional left roll and flew a perfectly good helicopter full speed into the hillside.
Another tragic case of pilots flying beyond their capability (Bill Graham, Kobe Bryant, SRV)…
This didn’t have to happen…
