{"id":9217,"date":"2011-08-01T10:25:32","date_gmt":"2011-08-01T18:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/?p=9217"},"modified":"2011-08-01T10:25:32","modified_gmt":"2011-08-01T18:55:32","slug":"pilot-error-caused-copter-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/?p=9217","title":{"rendered":"Pilot error caused copter crash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"hsa_storyTitle\">An army investigation of a 2009 helicopter crash at Wheeler Army Airfield that killed two pilots concluded that pilot error was the cause.\u00a0 The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.staradvertiser.com\/news\/20110801__Pilot_error_caused_copter_crash.html\">Honolulu Star Advertiser<\/a> reports:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The trouble started within two seconds of the helicopter&#8217;s engine drive being disengaged from the rotors \u2014 the equivalent of putting a car transmission in neutral \u2014 in a test of the chopper&#8217;s ability to &#8220;autorotate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Pilots are trained to use the spinning momentum of the rotor and upward airflow to keep flying.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the Army OH-58D Kiowa Warrior quickly lost airspeed and plummeted from an altitude of 250 feet, according to an Army investigation. The two-seat chopper crashed at Wheeler Army Airfield, killing the pilots, Stanley Blane Hepfner, 29, and Jonathan Bryce Millward, 28, both chief warrant officers.<\/p>\n<p>The accident investigation, obtained by the Star-Advertiser through the Freedom of Information Act, cites pilot error as the cause. The report says a drop in airspeed, a failure to abort the autorotation and a belated attempt to power back up sent the aircraft into a descent greater than 300 feet per minute into its own downwash.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The pilots did not correct airspeed to stay within acceptable safety parameters,&#8221; the report said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The Army is currently conducting an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/?p=9189\">environmental assessment<\/a> for a proposal to conduct helicopter training on Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.\u00a0\u00a0 Comments are due August 21, 2011.\u00a0 The Hawai&#8217;i State Department of Land and Natural Resources is the agency responsible for making the decision about granting a permit for the military training in a protected natural area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An army investigation of a 2009 helicopter crash at Wheeler Army Airfield that killed two pilots concluded that pilot error was the cause.\u00a0 The Honolulu Star Advertiser reports: The trouble started within two seconds of the helicopter&#8217;s engine drive being disengaged from the rotors \u2014 the equivalent of putting a car transmission in neutral \u2014 &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/?p=9217\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Pilot error caused copter crash&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[148],"class_list":["post-9217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hawaii","category-kauai","tag-accidents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9217"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9217"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9221,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9217\/revisions\/9221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}