It must have gone down at least 30 feet (10 meters) below the surface, before it stopped moving. Another option that I've used in my own business travel when planning to use GA is to purchase a refundable ticket on an airline if… I had no time to give a mayday call.But of course we were falling backwards towards the North Sea. Air Facts was first published in 1938 by Leighton Collins and relaunched in 2011 as an online journal by Richard Collins and Sporty's Pilot Shop.
It meant we could be at the oil field in less than three hours.It was about noon and the temperature above 40 degrees when we set off for Tsimiroro.
Back in the seventies I was on a night training flight at Barbers Point NAS, Hawaii in a CH-47C model. Only one passenger survived.The North Sea is pretty cold. It always was, and still is amazing how you 2 survived, and it still gives us hope that at least some of us will survive if the chopper ditches, Thank you for sharing this.Sign up for our free email newsletter, packed with tips, tricks and news for pilots. It most still be difficult to write even after all these years. My heart lurched as I realised what had happened. I’ve also survived a downed Chinook as well and went back to flying after recovery. You do not have to be Richard Collins or Ernest Gann--simply a GA pilot with a story you'd share with friends sitting in the hangar. Sadly for him, this change of shift cost him his life.Thursday, the 6th of November 1986, was a beautiful day at Sumburgh Airport. In 1982 I converted on to Chinooks, the Boeing Vertol BV-234, the biggest civilian helicopter in the world. By 1986 I had already flown over 2500 hours on the Chinooks and loved every minute of itI have flown helicopters for over 45 years.
We are all retired now and I hope all enjoying a well earned break.Thanks for sharing such a detailed account of the unfortunate accident.Another incredible story! New to Air Facts? After three years the shop was doing very well and he found that Pauline could manage the shop by herself. The helicopter, which had been travelling at about 100 knots, had came to a sudden stop and was now pointing vertically up. “There are some crashes that people are just simply not going to survive," he said. Wow. Three of us had brought satellite phones and we knew we could contact a rescue team with just a quick phone call – except the satellite phone system was down. We stayed overnight at the village and the next day we were picked up by a helicopter. How or why we survived is a mystery. No signal. He left Indian Air Force in 1974 and migrated to the UK and joined British Airways helicopters, where he logged over 2500 hours in the Chinook. The rear rotor blades where shaking so much that they, along with the gearbox (weighing more than a ton), parted company from the helicopter and splashed into the water about one nautical mile away from us.One gentleman standing about five miles away on top of a hill, near Sumburgh Airport, saw our helicopter falling towards the sea and he actually pointed out to the salvage team where to look for the rear rotor blades. Sir, It is all your courage that survived.
You do not have to be Richard Collins or Ernest Gann - simply a GA pilot with a story you'd share with friends sitting in the hangar. We were always able to carry a full load of passengers with full fuel on board.We had six Chinooks in the company. The left side of my face was all cut up and my nose was broken. The next morning the same bird was dispatched to the Big Island, they arrived just fine. The murky liquid was disgusting, but, if you're thirsty, you'll drink anything; you just don't care. There were a lot of broken pieces flying around in the cabin and he was injured and became unconscious. Only one passenger survived.
For this reason, anyone who is going to ride in a chopper should do everything they can to ensure a smooth and uneventful flight. Happy hovering.Great Story of survival. They were not moving or doing anything. He loved flying and decided to come back to flying.He joined British Airways Helicopters in the summer of 1986. Jay McBride, 65, is a Knoxville developer and supporter of the arts.Residents called authorities after the helicopter splashed down in the river at around 7.40pm on Monday, and the Knoxville Fire Department sent crews into the water to search for the missing victim using underwater sonar devices, according to Corcoran.An operation was launched to recover the body of the victim from the river after his companions were rescued by a pontoon boat It took divers more than two hours to find Joe Clayton's body in 30 feet of dark river water, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the deceased victim's body was recovered within a few feet of the crash site around 9.45pm.It was not clear whether the 84-year-old Joe Clayton was a pilot or a passenger, Corcoran said.