Some more from this morning's The Australian.
www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,22053923-31477,00.html
Co-pilot expected chopper to fly onD.D. McNicoll
July 11, 2007.
THE co-pilot of the Black Hawk helicopter that plunged into the sea off Fiji last year, killing two men, believed the aircraft would bounce and keep flying after it hit the deck of HMAS Kanimbla during a training exercise.
"It did feel a very firm landing but I did think we would keep flying," the army captain, who cannot be identified, told the board of inquiry into the incident yesterday.
However, the tail of the aircraft snapped off and the fuselage fell into the ocean, sinking rapidly.
The pilot, Captain Mark Bingley, and SAS trooper Joshua Porter, a passenger in the rear of the helicopter, were killed in the accident on November 29.
The co-pilot, code-named Captain No 7, who quickly exited the sinking aircraft and swam to the surface, said the emergency training conducted for Black Hawk crews did not take into account the aircraft sinking rapidly but simulated it floating or sinking slowly.
He described how he ignored training procedures and grabbed his breathing device, unbuckled his seat belt and exited the aircraft while it was sinking. In training drills, he had been told not to do anything until the aircraft stopped moving.
Because he was flying in the right-hand seat, he had a clear path to the surface as the helicopter sank left side down.
Captain No 7 said he swam between four and eight metres to the surface: "It was at a depth that required a considerable amount of swimming to get to the surface."
He said he thought the flight was normal until the aircraft hit the ship's deck. "I didn't have to say anything out of the ordinary," he said.
Earlier in the inquiry, SAS troopers travelling in the rear of the aircraft said they heard swearing and shouting between the pilot and the co-pilot before the impact.
Asked what he thought had caused the accident, Captain No7 said that in his opinion, the aircraft suffered transient rotor droop - a drop in power to the rotor, not a physical droop of the blades - and dropped out of the air on to the deck.
He said that before the Black Hawk left the ship, the pilot had taken a GPS reading on the deck to confirm the position they needed to return to, but when the Black Hawk flew back to that GPS mark, the ship had drifted away.
"I believe the GPS mark was in error," Captain No 7 said.
"I believe the GPS waypoint was not where we were flying to.
"We may have been physically closer to the termination point."
Yesterday afternoon, a senior army flier who investigated the crash and ran multiple simulations of the fatal flight on simulators in Melbourne and Queensland said he had calculated that the ship had drifted 320m to the left while the Black Hawk was in the air.
Code-named Major 5, the pilot said it had been estimated that the Black Hawk had approached HMAS Kanimbla at 98 knots rather than the less than 80 knots the exercise required.
Major 5 said when the helicopter was approaching the ship and the co-pilot, using the GPS position, had estimated the distance at 800m, it was probably less than 700m from the ship.
"If you were aware of the GPS error, you would assess the situation visually and fly more conservatively," he said, "but it is difficult to gauge distances visually over water."
He said that if a pilot found he was too fast or too close, he could flare the aircraft (lift the nose) at a greater rate to slow it down, or opt to go around and make a second attempt.
Major 5 said that in the simulations of the landing he had carried out in flight simulators, he had found that the helicopter would not have crashed had it been flying five knots slower or carrying 1000lbs (454kg) less weight.
Computer generated film of the simulated landings was shown to the inquiry, but it was ruled too confidential for public release.