Contextual Lenses

As part of my accident forensics studies in particular the course on real world investigation I have been asked observe the world around me and reflect on a personal or news event unfolding.

The items I have to reflect on are:

 

·         The contextual Lens myself and others wear;
·         The influence this may have on how the situation is perceived by various parties
·         How these factors might ultimately influence the outcome of the event.

Me and reflecting on things don’t really go together let alone reflecting on a personal issues. So maybe it’s time to give it a go.

I was having a few issues trying to come up with a simple event to base my blog on. As luck should have it (Well I was fairly lucky I guess) I was involved in an aviation incident late yesterday afternoon.

We were conducting an ordinary helicopter flight, finishing up our day we had to complete a Refuel. The refuelling went without problem and we were set to depart 15 minutes prior to last light. We lifted and started to depart following the runway. Three Quarters down the runway we receive a Master Caution Light for a Rotor Brake Activation. A rotor brake is similar to your hand brake on your car however in a helicopter it is used to slow the main rotor down once the engines are shut off. Luckily there were still a few minutes of daylight left and we were able to abort the take-off at the end of the runway and quickly land the helicopter.

The problem with getting a rotor brake activation in flight is it has the potential to slow down the only thing keeping you in the air the main rotor and also the friction caused is likely to start a fire.

Had this occurred at night we would have had to take the problem into the air and take several minutes to get back onto the ground. Even worse if this happened over the open ocean and we did experience the speed of the main rotor decreasing or a fire warning we would have had to have ditched the aircraft into the water at night.

That would have been worse case scenario luckily the fault was only found to be a problem with the switch in the rotor brake handle and not actually the rotor brake coming on in flight.

Now there were two people directly involved in this incident. The helicopter pilot and the crewman (Me). There were several other people not directly involved in this incident the Air Traffic Controller in Brisbane and our company flight monitoring staff in Canberra.

I’ll start with my actual lens:

Being fairly new to the helicopter side of Aviation I did not realise the issues associated with this kind of problem. Also to add to my complacency we quite often had problems with the rotor brake light on the ground after doing a rotor brake test. Every time the engineers would come out and fix something and the problem would go away for a few weeks.

So my lens when this incident was occurring and my though process involved

·         Master Caution Light this must be serious

·         Rotor Brake Light ahh that’s nothing it happens all the time on the ground

·         It’s been a big day let’s just go home.

·         The captain is turning around it must be serious.

·         If something does go wrong what do I have to do?

 The Captain this day was an experienced ex-military helicopter pilot with thousands of hours on helicopters.

His possible lens and thoughts.

·         What’s the Master Caution for?

·         Rotor Brake Light is this an indication error or is it a real issue?

·         Do I take this problem into the air and sort it out?

·         Is there any secondary indications?

·         How much daylight do I have left?

·         Is the helicopter secure?

·         If I have to force land where?

·         Where is the wind?

·         What is the cloud base?

·         What available emergency services are there? 

Air Traffic Control & Company Flight tracking were other parties not directly involved in the event but were still monitoring out flight path. These guys and girls are stuck in a location not able to physically see the aircraft but are monitoring every move we make to ensure we are safe and if something does go wrong they know where to come look for us.

From their end all they may have possibly seen is the helicopter marker on their computer screen and the helicopter taking off and making a sharp descending turn back to the aerodrome. The ATC controller received a brief radio call stating that we were returning to the airport and that was all. From this radio call the controller may have thought

·         They forgot something they are just going back

·         Having seen the helicopter perform a sharp descending turn may have though that the helicopter had gone into an uncontrolled spin, Fire on board, Hijacking?? The list goes on.

 

All this from a simple radio call and a dot on a computer screen.
 

All these different lenses had the opportunity to ultimately affect the outcome of the event.

My Lens:
·    It’s just an indication error let’s keep going… What if it wasn’t just an indication error? I’d probably be floating around in the ocean somewhere.
The Captains Lens:
·    Let’s turn around and land just in case. May have ultimately saved the crew and the airframe.