Loading ...Yeah, it was poor pilot judgement to fly in difficult weather like that. But like I said… ‘get there’ pressure flying a celebrity entourage. One speculation I read was that he may have panicked at the last minute and pulled up sharply in altitude. Such a condition can cause the rotor wings to ‘stall’ or lose lift. The chopper then noses downward. Not a problem if you are high enough to recover. If you are close to the ground, it is fatal. And yes, I believe he was going way too fast for the limited visibility conditions.
I learned to fly in my 20’s back in Wisconsin. I was a nut about safety and read so many accident reports to learn what could go wrong. There were lots of things wrong about that flight and weather… it was not a series of ‘safe’ decisions. I knew a pilot who flew a small plane for a Brewery company back in WI. He refused to fly the corporate bosses home one night with freezing rain and known icing conditions. They were pissed, and fired him on the spot. He just shrugged it off. “That’s what I get for saving all of our lives… and they don’t even know it!”