Bucket swung in chopper crash
The father of war hero and celebrated pilot Steve Askin says not knowing exactly why his helicopter crashed in Christchurch’s Port Hills is both ‘‘enormously frustrating and completely irrelevant’’.
David Steven Askin, known as Steve, was a former SAS soldier who had once been injured in a Taliban shootout. The 38-year-old was working for Way To Go Heliservices when he crashed near Sugarloaf while fighting a massive fire in the Port Hills on February 14.
The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) released an interim report into the fatal crash yesterday to warn other pilots about what happened and to prevent similar crashes.
The report revealed Askin made a mayday call moments before his Eurocopter AS350-BA went down. A digital video camera on the machine showed the monsoon bucket had flown up towards the tail while the helicopter was returning to a dipping pond.
‘‘The video also showed that the bucket had not contacted the ground prior to the tail rotor strike. After the vertical stabiliser detached, the helicopter had entered a gradual descending right roll until it struck the ground,’’ the TAIC report said.
Askin’s father, Paul, said he was yet to read the report but was aware there was evidence a piece of the bucket had hit the tail rotor. He said not knowing why the cables struck the tail rotor was both ‘‘enormously frustrating and completely irrelevant’’.
‘‘You can tell me exactly what happened, you can explain the whole thing to me – does it change anything? No, we’ve lost our son; Elizabeth has lost her husband. He doesn’t come back whatever you find out.
‘‘But in another sense you do want to know. And we would certainly want other pilots to know if there’s something they need to know that will help to prevent any more accidents.’’
Askin began learning to fly helicopters in 1998 and gained his commercial helicopter pilot licence in 2002. His total helicopter flying experience was about 2350 hours, including about 500 hours on the AS350-BA.
Paul Askin had spoken with several pilots, as well as his son’s boss, who all said Steve Askin was a ‘‘careful, deliberate pilot’’.
‘‘He was not a cowboy. He wasn’t a corner cutter. He wanted to fly very well and professionally and do a good job, use the machine within its capabilities to do the work in hand.’’
Paul Askin said the last few months had been ‘‘hard yards’’ for the family as they come to terms with their loss.
‘‘We’ve lost a wonderful member of our family and he’s left a big hole in our family and in our hearts. It actually takes some weeks, months, for the finality, the permanence of what’s happened to really sink in.’’
Askin left Rangiora about 5.40am on February 14 to join two other helicopter crews fighting the Port Hills fire.
After the lunch break, the group was directed to drop water on fires near the Sign of the Kiwi. The dipping point was a pond next to Summit Rd, about 2 kilometres from the fires.
An abbreviated mayday call was heard by several pilots about 2.05pm, but it was not clear which radio frequency the call was made on.
The air attack supervisor asked for a role call of all aircraft involved. Askin did not respond.
After a brief search, another pilot found the wreckage of Askin’s helicopter on a steep slope near the head of a gully east of Sugarloaf.
According to TAIC’s report, the helicopter had struck a steep tussock-covered slope. Main rotor strikes on the slope indicated the helicopter had tumbled further down the slope.
The report considered evidence from similar squirrel helicopter crashes, noting the main causes were either an abrupt dive or the bursting of a container carrying a load, which behaves like a parachute when empty. In both cases, the sling or load follows the airstream into the tail rotor.
TAIC recommended several solutions, including using heavy ballast slings, and having someone monitor the operation from the ground.