The Chinook helicopter was flying in Afghanistan. Without warning, one of the helicopter’s two engines flamed out. The helicopter crashed. Eight service personnel were killed and fourteen were severely injured.
The victims and their families sued the helicopter’s various manufacturers, including Boeing, Honeywell and Goodrich. They claimed that the helicopter’s engine qu
it because of a defect in
After a helicopter accident, many airplane pilots are quick to conclude that the helicopter pilot violated one aviation regulation or another. But the laws that airplane pilots know so well do not always apply to helicopters. Rather, helicopters operate largely under their own set of rules. Some of the differences between the rules applicable to airplanes and helicopters are:
Minimum Altitudes
Some pilots refuse to fly piston-powered helicopters, insisting instead on turbine-powered machines. Turbine engines, their argument goes, are much less likely to fail in flight than piston engines. Though more expensive to purchase and to operate, the reliability of turbine-powered helicopters makes them safer than their piston-powered counterparts.
Does that mean the new Robinson R66, with its Rolls-Royce turbine engine, will
Emergency Medical Services helicopters don’t get paid for being on call. They earn money only when transporting patients. But, when they do transport a patient, they are paid well — up to $20,000 per trip.
The business model has worked out well for the industry. In fact, the number of EMS helicopters in service has quadrupled since
Robinson Helicopter Company has long touted the crashworthiness of its helicopters. An excerpt from Robinson Safety Notice SN-10, which dates back to 1982:
The R22 and R44 have demonstrated excellent crashworthiness as long as the pilot flies the aircraft all the way to the ground . . .The ship may roll over and be severely
A passenger injured in an aircraft accident can’t sue the aircraft manufacturer if the part that caused the crash is older than 18 years. Any such suit would be barred by the General Aviation Revitalization Act, or GARA.
What if the accident was caused by a mistake in one of the aircraft’s manuals rather than a
Nothing scares helicopter pilots more than wires. Flying into a wire is often fatal. What worries the pilot is that wires are hard to spot. The trick is to look for the towers. Once you see the towers, you can spot the wires strung between them.
But not always.
In January, a California Fish and Game
This week, aviation accident attorneys from across the country met on Maui to discuss current topics in aviation law. This was part of the American Association of Justice’s Winter Convention. I was honored to have been asked to speak. My talk was on Hawaii helicopter crash litigation — a topic with which we are —
In 1994, the FAA — hoping to reduce the number of helicopter tour crashes in Hawaii — promulgated a controversial rule that set minimum altitudes for Hawaiian sight seeing flights.
According to an article appearing this spring in Aviation, Space and Environmental Medicine, after the rule went into effect the overall number of helicopter crashes in Hawaii decreased
The easy answer: the applicant is the Pilot in Command and is fully responsible for the safe operation of the aircraft, not the FAA check pilot. But what about when the check pilot attempts to simulate an engine failure by chopping the throttle? At that point, hasn’t the check pilot assumed control of the aircraft?
Well, that’s