Originally Posted by themo
McRae crashed his helicopter on 15 September 2007 in a wooded area, Mouse Valley, near to his home in Lanark. He died along with his son Johnny, aged five, and two family friends: six year-old Ben Porcelli and Graeme Duncan, who was 37.
The FAI has found that McRae lost control of his helicopter after entering Mouse Valley when there were no “operational or logistical reasons” to do so.
The helicopter deviated from its path and collided with trees. McRae wasn’t able to recover control of the aircraft because he was flying too fast and too low.
Sheriff Nikola Stewart concluded:“For a private pilot such as Mr McRae, lacking the necessary training, experience or requirement to do so, embarking upon such demanding, low level flying in such difficult terrain, was imprudent, unreasonable and contrary to the principles of good airmanship.”
The FAI found that McRae, the youngest man ever to win the World Rally Championships drivers title with his victory for the Subaru team in 1995, didn’t hold a valid flying licence at the time of the crash and therefore should not have been flying the aircraft.
Video recordings of the flight had been taken by passenger Graeme Duncan on a video camera he used inside the helicopter.
The footage demonstrated that McRae had consistently flown the aircraft at unnecessarily low heights throughout the fatal flight.