Crash was pilot’s fault: Report

THE final report into a helicopter crash near Buluma town in West New Britain last year found that the pilot had limited knowledge and understanding of the aircraft’s systems.
The findings by PNG Accident Investigation Commission (AIC) was released by chief commissioner Hubert Namani on Tuesday.
The accident occurred on Aug 11 last year.
The male pilot, 51, from New Zealand, who has 6,549 hours of flying time survived the crash with minor injuries.
The Bell 427 helicopter, registered P2-HSG, was owned and operated by Niugini Helicopters.
Namani said “on Aug 11, 2019, at 11.25am the helicopter was reported to have impacted a reef north-west of Buluma while conducting a visual flight rules ferry flight from Kokopo, East New Britain, to Kimbe, West New Britain”.
The commission was notified about the occurrence the same day.
The AIC started an investigation immediately.
The pilot’s decision to conduct the autorotation revolutions per minute (RPM) check over water, far away from a safe landing area, contributed to the severity of the accident, the report said.
The report identified that the pilot’s initial misdiagnosis of low rotor RPM warning associated with the alleged abnormal torque reading led the pilot to enter into the emergency descent instead of actioning the low rotor RPM emergency procedure. The late recognition of engine status resulted in the pilot being unable to recover from the emergency descent as the helicopter was quite low at that time.
Namani said “after the helicopter ditched, it continued tracking towards the south-west for about 20 minutes before it reached a shallow reef.”
The pilot tried to lift the helicopter onto the reef, but it spun out of control, impacted the reef, and came to rest on its left side.