On February 9, the NTSB held a public meeting on the crash of a Sikorsky S-76B that killed the pilot and eight occupants. As helicopter crashes go, other than killing superstar athlete Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and family friends, this one held few surprises. In a scenario that has been played out many times before, this accident flight included scud running, inadvertent flight into IMC, spatial disorientation, loss of control, and a tragic loss of life.
The obvious question here, as the late Matt Zuccaro said many times before, why don’t they just “land the damn helicopter?” Pilots need to take advantage of the most unique and valuable characteristics of vertical flight and just “land and live” rather than continually flying into bad weather.
Pilot, safety expert, consultant, and aviation journalist Stuart “Kipp” Lau writes about flight safety and airmanship for AIN.
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