Aircraft crash in Pacific Ocean near LA/rescue

A couple questions and comments spring to mind:

1) Unless a Navy ship is nearby to the crash, the Coast Guard should be the first responder.

2) Unless the helicopter is on the way to Catalina Island, if he's too far off shore, it will raise questions as to why he's out that far.

3) Who owns the helicopter? I would guess they have they get to make the decision whether to retrieve the helicopter or not.

4) Wouldn't a helicopter flying over the sea expected to be using floats?

5) Wouldn't any helicopter accident automatically trigger an NTSB investigation?

any first responders will always have blankets he can wrap in. i don't know what clothes they'd give him - i'm a former EMT, and I don't remember if we carried spare clothes (except maybe a jacket or something) - if our clothes got bloody or something, we'd change into a set of scrubs from the ER, or change into a clean uniform when we got back to the station. I imagine that first responders who are water-related are more likely to carry an extra dry uniform with them, but I don't think they'd give that to him. If he doesn't go to the hospital (where they would give him some scrubs), he's probably on his own for clothes.

I can't speak for the other questions you asked, but a helpful tip - maybe he isn't seriously injured, but I would expect him to at least have some cuts/bruises that require a little first aid.

"Crashes helicopter into the ocean" - you mean 'ditches' it? Without getting into a specific aircraft - there's an awfull lot of mass and inertia in those whirling blades over the pilot's head. If this chopper is not equipped for water landing, it's not going to float for long, if at all. It's not going to be 'stable' when it sits on the water, and those blades are going to whip into it pretty fast - even if he's auto-rotating. Blades break, pieces fly apart, it's an awfully messy situation. Not something anyone would do intentionally.

What would worry me is that it's the unexplained crashes which are investigated in every last detail. "Helicopter mysteriously crashes" says to the authorities "this model may be defective, we need to know NOW what caused the crash and if we need to start revoking safety certificates."

Aircraft accidents are poured over by professionals. NTSA, FAA. and more. The aircraft that 'disappears' - is going to reappear at another place and time. It's going to need maintenance. It's going to need fuel. Even if it's privately owned, records are kept.

You can make it disappear for a few hours or perhaps days - at most. But you could not sustain the ruse for long.

In this day and age, apparently you can go as deep as you want and they'll still investigate. The NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) investigates air crashes. Up to 300 feet deep, it would send down divers. After that, it would send down cameras. Look at how deep they sent the cameras for the AirFrance crash in the South Atlantic. If they don't start wondering where the hell the helicopter is in about 48 hours, I'd be surprised.

So at a bare minimum, you either need to bring this back in time or sink a helicopter along with everything else. And even if you sink a helicopter, you'd probably have to have the damage that WriteKnight describes. NTSB knows what they're doing and they've seen helicopter crashes into the ocean before.

From what I've seen of Coast Guard rescues, the CG carries spare one-piece outfits in various sizes for rescue victims. Just makes common sense that you'd have something to dress people in.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

skylark said:

What would worry me is that it's the unexplained crashes which are investigated in every last detail. "Helicopter mysteriously crashes" says to the authorities "this model may be defective, we need to know NOW what caused the crash and if we need to start revoking safety certificates."

Click to expand...

agreed. maybe the best thing would be for him to give a false explanation for the crash. "oh, yes, I know exactly what happened, the (insert mechanical jargon here) failed." he could even blame himself for it - "I've been meaning to do some maintenance on the (more mechanical jargon), but I guess I didn't realize how bad it was." or some such.

Any close by ship will respond, but most likely, the Coast Guard will be the agency called to do the rescue and will be best equipped to do so. The Navy would not be called for this.

There is a procedure for ditching a helicopter. Yes, it is dangerous, but left with no options, it's better than some other alternatives. Put the helicopter into a hover above the water. Everybody but the pilot exits along with any survival equipment that they may have (for trips out of "autorotation distance" from land are required to pack survival gear like rafts and life preservers). The pilot hovers a safe distance away, jettisons his door (if possible on that model of helicopter) and then chops the throttle(s) and shuts down the engines performing a hovering autorotation. The goal is to dissipate as much rotor RPM prior to the rotor blades striking the water. This minimizes the chance that a broken blade will come back and smack the pilot. Once the rotors stop turning, the pilot will exit the helicopter.

The water only needs to be deep enough where it's cost prohibitive to recover the aircraft. No matter how soft the landing, the helicopter is a total loss once it has been submerged in salt water. It won't be worth repairing even if they can get it up. For a small aircraft accident, with only one person on board, the NTSB is not going to waste any time or money trying to find the cause. If the pilot says, "I had and engine failure", they'll do a cursory investigation and write it off from there. If they do dive on the wreck, they will not be able to confirm engine failure without recovering components. To recover the aircraft, it would take tons of money. Who's going to pay for it? The aircraft is worthless. The NTSB will be satisfied with the story as long as a few facts check out. (flight plan, pilot ratings, fuel state, etc).

If you have any other questions about the procedure or other factors, PM me. I have 20 years aviation experience and am qualified in both helicopters and airplanes.

Also:
http://www.pursuetheoutdoors.com/fishing/contour-maps/grddas06/grddas06.php

Very cool ocean depth charts for the coast of California. There are some very deep spots very close to shore with legitimate reasons for a helicopter to be out there.