This is truly a tragic event. Scud running in a helicopter is a very common method of flight. It is safer than in an airplane because of the helicopter's abilty to just stop and land almost anywhere (if needed) and the ability to slow down to a point where you can still see what is going on in bad visibility. When I flew in Germany the first flight of the day was usually the scud run to find out where the fog was an just how bad it was. It was good enough to launch and take off and check it out as long as we could recover back at our base or another base within fuel range. You learn a great deal about how far you are willing to push it flying those early flights. But scud running was exhilarating to say the least. I flew a Reforger mission with a very experienced pilot that had no experience flying in Germany. We were scud running to position the bird to pick up the General when I called it and we set down to wait out the weather. When the fog lifted 25 min. later there was an uncharted (on our maps) set of high tension power lines less than 600 feet in front of where we set down and we would have probably hit them had we pushed on. There is no replacement for experience and familiarity with the area you are flying in. Nobody has mentioned anything about the pilot's. I am type rated in the S76 and it is a very capable platform. Sometimes having all the bells and whistles gives a pilot a false sense of security. Could/Should the pilot of pulled pitch and declared the emergency inadvertent IFR? Hind sight says yes. Should he have had a second pilot flying in sketchy weather? My opinion would be yes. 160 knots is cranking for that helicopter and is beyond a standard S-76's VNE (velocity never to exceed). Was the pilot disoriented and trying to transition to IFR (one of the hardest things to do if you wait just a little too long and get it out of shape prior to committing)? Quite possibly. That helicopter can fly just as well at 60 knots as it can at 150 knts. But what was reported v.s. what actually was could be two totally different things.
If I had to speculate on what happened, a pilot felt a need to execute a mission that should not have been flown to satisfy the perceived desires of his high profile employer. They took off and as the weather deteriorated something caused the pilot to push on rather than make the call and cancel the mission. Was Kobe a difficult person to fly for? I don't know. Would he have fired the pilot had he canceled the flight? I don't know. What I do know from experience is that usually if you explain the risks and give a good briefing to the passengers they will make the right call and cancel a marginal weather flight. Ultimately it is the pilot's responsibility to make the right call. And after all the investigation this crash will be labeled pilot error in some form of legalize.
God speed to all 9 that perished and despite our worldly views, each of the 9 lost is just as important to the Lord.
