choppergabor
Newbie
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2009
- Messages
- 4,864
- Location
- Sunshine State
- Aircraft
- N65GK Behemoth
- Total Flight Time
- Too few to mention
I just had to copy this article out.
Darwin award comes to mind reading it.
A West Coast pilot was texting just minutes before his helicopter plunged into Lake Wanaka.
The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) yesterday released its report into 31-year-old Morgan Saxton's fatal helicopter crash on November 1, 2008.
Telephone records showed Haast-based Saxton had received and sent text messages, including one sent close to the time of his accident, the report said.
It also said anecdotes suggested Saxton "had a preference for flying fast".
However, pilot David Jellie told The Press yesterday that in his many years of flying with Saxton he never saw him text while controlling a helicopter.
Jellie said Saxton was an "exceptionally" talented pilot.
The comprehensive TAIC report had answered a lot of questions, Jellie said.
"He was an extremely gifted pilot, but this one has just caught him out."
The report had found mast bump – contact between the rotor head or the root of the blade and the rotor mast – had occurred before the Robinson R22 helicopter hit the water.
The contact was likely to have been caused by turbulence, the report said.
Morgan and his father, David Saxton, also a Haast-based helicopter pilot, were found guilty in 2007 of stealing pounamu from the Cascade Plateau.
On the day of the accident, both men were travelling to Wanaka to refuel before flying to Lowburn, south of Wanaka, for crop frost-protection flights.
Morgan Saxton's body and most of the helicopter wreckage were retrieved from the lake four days after the crash.
Police divers who recovered Saxton's body reported that he had earplugs and a cord for a cellphone, MP3 player or similar device in his left hand. The cord had been misplaced and its specific nature was not determined.
The report said the main rotor blade had struck the helicopter's cabin, hitting Saxton and killing him instantly.
There were no witnesses to the accident.
However, about six minutes before the estimated time of the accident the pilot had flown past a barge skippered by a friend and sent a message to the friend, saying, "I'm just going down to frost at Lowburn tonight."
Telephone company records showed that in the next few minutes the pilot had received and sent text messages.
The report said the sending of a cellphone message was unlikely to have precipitated the accident.
"However, composing and sending messages was very likely to have diverted the pilot's attention from monitoring the helicopter performance and could have hampered his ability to respond promptly and appropriately to control the helicopter if it had encountered turbulence or a low-G condition," the report said.
Darwin award comes to mind reading it.
A West Coast pilot was texting just minutes before his helicopter plunged into Lake Wanaka.
The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) yesterday released its report into 31-year-old Morgan Saxton's fatal helicopter crash on November 1, 2008.
Telephone records showed Haast-based Saxton had received and sent text messages, including one sent close to the time of his accident, the report said.
It also said anecdotes suggested Saxton "had a preference for flying fast".
However, pilot David Jellie told The Press yesterday that in his many years of flying with Saxton he never saw him text while controlling a helicopter.
Jellie said Saxton was an "exceptionally" talented pilot.
The comprehensive TAIC report had answered a lot of questions, Jellie said.
"He was an extremely gifted pilot, but this one has just caught him out."
The report had found mast bump – contact between the rotor head or the root of the blade and the rotor mast – had occurred before the Robinson R22 helicopter hit the water.
The contact was likely to have been caused by turbulence, the report said.
Morgan and his father, David Saxton, also a Haast-based helicopter pilot, were found guilty in 2007 of stealing pounamu from the Cascade Plateau.
On the day of the accident, both men were travelling to Wanaka to refuel before flying to Lowburn, south of Wanaka, for crop frost-protection flights.
Morgan Saxton's body and most of the helicopter wreckage were retrieved from the lake four days after the crash.
Police divers who recovered Saxton's body reported that he had earplugs and a cord for a cellphone, MP3 player or similar device in his left hand. The cord had been misplaced and its specific nature was not determined.
The report said the main rotor blade had struck the helicopter's cabin, hitting Saxton and killing him instantly.
There were no witnesses to the accident.
However, about six minutes before the estimated time of the accident the pilot had flown past a barge skippered by a friend and sent a message to the friend, saying, "I'm just going down to frost at Lowburn tonight."
Telephone company records showed that in the next few minutes the pilot had received and sent text messages.
The report said the sending of a cellphone message was unlikely to have precipitated the accident.
"However, composing and sending messages was very likely to have diverted the pilot's attention from monitoring the helicopter performance and could have hampered his ability to respond promptly and appropriately to control the helicopter if it had encountered turbulence or a low-G condition," the report said.
