AAP General News (Australia)
04-24-2008
Qld: Investigation fails to find cause of chopper crash
A safety investigation has failed to find what caused a helicopter to ditch into the
ocean off Queensland's central coast.
The pilot was flying a marine pilot to a container ship when engine trouble forced
him to put down in the ocean 180km offshore from Mackay on June 13 last year.
They inflated a raft and were picked up by a rescue chopper before being treated for
minor cuts and fuel burns.
The chopper drifted 84 kilometres from the crash site and wasn't recovered for three months.
By then damage from salt water and exposure made it impossible to say what caused the
engine trouble.
However the report named a number of possibilities that could have caused the engine
shutdown .. including engine fuel starvation.
It also found the pilot had undertaken unapproved maintenance before the flight which
could have posed a danger.
AAP RTV jmm/pjo/bart
KEYWORD: HELICOPTER (BRISBANE)
2008 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.
No comments:
Post a Comment