Last November, Maxime Compagnon crashed his Zlin Aviation Savage Cruiser in the Austrian Alps after encountering an unseen cable at 9700 feet. In this video, he describes the circumstances of his accident with a focus on survival equipment that made a difference in difficult circumstances, including a flight helmet, vest and PLB. This week’s AVweb blog further analyzes the value of a helmet in certain flight operations.
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I don’t wish a mishap on anyone, I feel for their injuries and recovery and appreciate the first person recount of their rescue…
The rest of the story (covered elsewhere?) would shed light on how they came to be surprised by the wire. Are the existing notification procedures adequate? were they executed by the wire erecting entity? was it a briefing omission? or was it a pilot preflight omission/nav/SA failure?
You will not see a wire until too late, you may see the pylons on the ridges either side of the cut IF you know to look for them…lessons learned in a past life fast/low through the mountains, on briefed routes, looking for charted elec/notam’d logging wires.
Helicopters have wire slicing blades for at least small cables, angled from top front and bottom front of nose.