Thread: Four dead after two helicopters collide in mid-air in Australia

Looks like they simply didn't see each other. One shortly after take off, the other coming in to land.

Four dead after two helicopters collide in mid-air near Sea World theme park in Australia

Four dead after two helicopters collide in mid-air near Sea World theme park in Australia | World News | Sky News

Nice link

Two Britons among four killed in Australian helicopter collision near Sea World theme park

Two Britons among four killed in Australian helicopter collision near Sea World theme park | World News | Sky News

The collision occurred just 20 seconds after the lower aircraft took off, the two Eurocopter EC130s collided around 60 metres off the ground.

As the first chopper gained altitude, it smashed into the second helicopter, which appeared to be descending.

The churning rotors of the first helicopter ripped into the cabin of the second one, shattering its glass cockpit just centimetres from the pilot and passengers inside.

Surely, they should have systems / procedures in place so this can't happen.

^ I absolutely loathe the things. I have to do Helicopter Underwater Escape Training (HUET) every four years to work offshore and in fact have a course booked in Bangkok at the end of this month.

However, despite that I am now at a stage in life where I'd turn down a job if it meant getting on a helicopter.

My wife reversed into a parked car right outside our house the other day so I guess people just turn off sometimes when they do the same things every day...

Originally Posted by Mendip

^ I absolutely loathe the things.

Me too, i must have flown over 100 times and haven't now for the last 8 years and unless i'm getting pulled out of somewhere remote i'll never set foot in one again.

Originally Posted by malmomike77

Me too, i must have flown over 100 times and haven't now for the last 8 years and unless i'm getting pulled out of somewhere remote i'll never set foot in one again.

That was for work or something ? Or did you go on these pricey joy rides ?

My dad worked for the Air Force investigating aircraft crashes. He would not fly in a helicopter. He thought they were too precarious.

Come to think of it, I know of no one personally who perished in a plane crash. I do know two people who died in separate helicopter crashes.

^ That made me think Misskit... I had one offshore colleague and friend killed in Brazil in a helicopter crash in 2003. I just found a new article about it...

Oil Workers killed in Helicopter Crash
Three passengers, including an Aberdeen oil worker, and two crew have been killed in a helicopter crash 115 miles north-east of Rio de Janeiro off the coast of Brazil.

The helicopter was being used for a crew-change operation when its tail rotor struck one of the antennas on the Toisa Mariner tanker and broke off. The helicopter lost control and crashed into the sea quickly sinking to a depth of 900 meters. There were no survivors.

Aberdeen Oil worker Kenn Ward was employed by Stolt Offshore who were operating the tanker for Petrobras.


There was also a wealthy farming type guy living in a neighbouring village in Somerset who was killed while crashing his own helicopter and a guy the year below at my secondary school in Somerset joined the army and was killed in a helicopter crash in Iraq.

They are inherently dangerous.

Originally Posted by Backspin

That was for work or something ? Or did you go on these pricey joy rides ?

work, you'd never get me in one for leisure. I did a stint where we flew in and out daily which probably accounts for nearly 60 of those, i hated getting in one every time

Originally Posted by misskit

I do know two people who died in separate helicopter crashes.

Flew on helicopters many times and survived but unfortunately knew dozens who didn't.
Museum pieces now.

How Vietnam Veterans Are Making a New Home for Old Huey Helicopters

One of the worst has to be Heli Mustering in Australia.

One of my friends died in this crash. Nepal helicopter crash: no survivors found | Environment | The Guardian

Can’t find the report of the other but it was also in Nepal on a commercial flight.

I have flown in helicopters many times. Scared shitless each flight.

Originally Posted by misskit

Can’t find the report of the other but it was also in Nepal on a commercial flight.

i flew with the Nepal Army on a flight down to the Indian border from KTM and paid for a commercial airplane flight back even though i was due to return with them, the visibility dropping through the mountain ranges was terrible and the pilot was throwing the thing all over the place. There were many crashes during the just over 3 years in total i was there.

Originally Posted by misskit

My dad worked for the Air Force investigating aircraft crashes. He would not fly in a helicopter. He thought they were too precarious.

One of the pilots had a t-shirt I'll never forget on a project we did with 3 Choppers based on the crew in PNG many moons ago, the back of it read Helicopters don't fly, they beat the air into submission! Never get in one unless you have to!

Originally Posted by misskit

Come to think of it, I know of no one personally who perished in a plane crash. I do know two people who died in separate helicopter crashes.

I know people who've died in both unfortunately, but more in Choppers than Planes.

Here's a couple of pics from that job in PNG (circa 1985-1986) where one Pilot was a very lucky boy to survive when he was doing stupid low level shit over a river (Croc infested, just to add to the fun) and his main-blades hit the water. As it was, he died anyway a few years later when the Chopper he was flying crashed for reasons I don't know.


Chopper buffs will see a Squirrel which was the earlier model of the 2 machines that crashed in this thread, a Lama, and somewhere else is the Hughes 500 pictured below.


Getting slung back to base after divers went down and attached a sling line to it, then a Huey 212 came in and hoisted it. All dangerous AF too!


Yeah that won't buff out!

Sorry to go off topic in the thread but I only recently scanned these old pics and thought they might be of interest to some..

Originally Posted by malmomike77

...unless i'm getting pulled out of somewhere remote...

*snigger*

I've never been on one. And I never will. I probably wouldnt even ride these new air taxis that are supposedly coming out

Originally Posted by misskit

Come to think of it, I know of no one personally who perished in a plane crash. I do know two people who died in separate helicopter crashes.

I knew someone on the missing MAH flight, and a friend perished in a helicopter crash in Indonesia.

^I knew someone on Air France 447 that fell out of the sky from 35,000 ft before crashing into the ocean off the coast of Brazil. That would have been every imaginable nightmare come true on the way down

^ There were a few oil workers on that flight and at least one from the company I worked for at the time. I was working in Brazil back then and regularly flew Air France back and forth.

Things like that make you think.

Originally Posted by Headworx

^I knew someone on Air France 447 that fell out of the sky from 35,000 ft before crashing into the ocean off the coast of Brazil. That would have been every imaginable nightmare come true on the way down

I doubt most of then never even knew about it. It just slowed to a stall ended up on a near vertical line. Most people would have been asleep.