Doctors Ban Flying at Night

Heli-Ops · November 4, 2003

Paramedics join night copter ban

Rosemary Odgers

04nov03

SOME Queensland paramedics have joined a ban on night-time rescue helicopter flights amid concerns about safety standards of single-engine aircraft.

Meetings of ambulance officers in central Queensland yesterday voted to allow paramedics to refuse to fly in single-engine helicopters which rely on a pilot's visibility and not instruments to navigate.

The Ambulance Employees Union is canvassing other members throughout Queensland to determine if they will impose the ban statewide.

It comes after some Queensland Health doctors indicated at the weekend that they would not fly on the single-engine helicopters at night in the wake of last month's crash of a single-engine Bell 407 off Mackay, which killed three crewmen who were on their way to a rescue on Hamilton Island.

It was unclear what impact the bans would have on patient treatment.

The State Government yesterday said it would not force doctors or paramedics to fly on the rescue helicopters.

But Premier Peter Beattie said there was no evidence that single-engine aircraft were more dangerous and the Government was committed to resolving the issue with the health workers.

"All the evidence that we have indicates that single-engine helicopters are no less safe than twin-engine helicopters," Mr Beattie said. "We are doing everything we can to ensure safety."

Emergency rescue helicopter services are based in eight locations in the state. Three of them – Mackay, Rockhampton and the Torres Strait – are solely reliant on single-engine aircraft.

Union spokesman Steve Crowe yesterday said he expected a decision within a week on whether other paramedics would endorse the total ban on night flying in single-engine aircraft and support a plan to make the use of twin-engines a priority.

aser · November 5, 2003

But Premier Peter Beattie said there was no evidence that single-engine aircraft were more dangerous

Humm... Is it so dificult to imagine what is going to happens if your ONLY engine quits under IMC ??¿¿ or it's just me..?

How many of you guys have done autos at night in the middle of nowhere?

Are you feeling safe flying single engines on night VFR ?

Dynamic Component · November 5, 2003

Now why would you want 2 engines????? :oops:

That doubles the risk of a engine failure!!

You stil only have one gearbox and one tailrotor/fenestrom/notar. ???

CJ Eliassen · November 5, 2003

The other engine is very important. It gets you to the crash site.

BDR · November 6, 2003

There is a paper written by a Mr. Fox from Bell helicopters. The paper was written in the early 1980's. (Don't have the paper with me and I can't remember the exact date) It was written in response to ICAO proposing to ban all single engine helicopter flights over congested areas and such. The paper states that in the event of an engine failure the twin engine helicopter was safer...but most of the accidents were NOT caused by engine failures but because of other reasons ie pilot error, component failures other than engines, etc.

He argued that even though it has two engines it still had only one gearbox, rotor, tail rotor, drivesystem etc and should therefore not be compared to twin engine airplane.

He also mentions a study that took place in Australia (if memory serves me correct) on use of single engine helicopters in harbor pilot operations. The conclusion was that a twin engine helicopter would not reduce the probability of an accident.

Conclusion of the paper is that single engine helicopters are as or safer than twin engine helicopters.

He goes into great detail in explaining how and why and he uses statistics to prove this and if you can find the article it makes a very interesting read even though it has a couple of years on it.

Randy Greenhalgh · November 6, 2003

There is a more recent survey on twin vs. singles, with twins having 4% fewer engine failures. When pure engine malfunctions were the cause, not accessories. Here in Canada, there is no commercial single engine NVFR (with a few exceptions like ENG). The twin has more components to fail, but having the second power section will buy you some time, and turns things like high-side governor failures into something a little less exciting. One problem with a twin (as the U.S. military has noted) is pilots mis-identifying which engine has had the problem and shutting down the wrong engine. :oops:

From what little I've seen of the accident in Qld, the problem sounded like CFIT. If that was the case, having an extra engine wouldn't have helped. If the a/c had had an engine failure, then yes another engine would have given the pilot a few more options.

Cheers

407 Driver · November 7, 2003

CJ, Don't forget the other important reason for a second engine, not only does the remaining engine get you to the crash site, but it is also used as a source of ignition after impact !! :oops: :oops: ???

Randy Greenhalgh · November 7, 2003

I was once told that the second engine also allows you to crash a lot more elegantly. :: :oops:

Cheers

Jesse James · November 7, 2003

I read an article on twin engine failures in helicopters and sometimes if one engine has a catastrophic failure it will take out the engine beside it.