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6th September 2011, 12:15 #1
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Inquiry: McRae Flying Too Low And Too Fast
Former rally world champion Colin McRae MBE crashed his helicopter because he was flying too low and too fast in the wrong place, a Fatal Accident Inquiry has found.The inquiry found 39-year-old McRae had undertaken the flight that killed him and three others without a valid pilot’s licence.
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.2007 Motogp Pickems Champion,2009 BTCC Pickems Champion,
2011 F1 Pickems Champion,2012 Cup Scramble Champion
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6th September 2011, 14:40 #2
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God love his family who have to read this.
Marcus: "Tell Corrado, three gears is enough!"
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6th September 2011, 15:02 #3
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Even though I respect Colin's achievements on rally stages, as an aviation enthusiast I can't tell how saddened and disappointed I am to read this. The accident was totally avoidable and only happened because of pilot's very bad judgement and reckless flying.
Satakymppi, oikee yks
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6th September 2011, 15:23 #4
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all rescpect is lost...
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6th September 2011, 15:44 #5
It sucks to hear this ...
GG: "I'm stinky! I needa good shower and nice bowl of pasta!"
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6th September 2011, 15:45 #6
But it's not like he purposely did this!!
GG: "I'm stinky! I needa good shower and nice bowl of pasta!"
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6th September 2011, 16:20 #7
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Nothing like leaving the dead to rest in peace.
As far as it goes, nobody can really know what happened. Much less a 'jobsworth expert' paid to find fault.I will be rich, as soon as I invent a machine that can punch a man in the face over the internet.
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6th September 2011, 16:26 #8
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I said this at the time from reports all round.
And to put it very mildly was shat upon.
I tried to couch what I said it reasonable terms, stressed that the military, with basically unlimited funds ---since the mony comes from taxpayers---train and train and train and train their pilots---and still they frequently crash their helicopters...
McRae had driven well, but there was a huge amount of contemptuousness for those around him lurking not very far below the surface which we saw flare up---tooo frequently in my book considering how little time TV crews shoot "talking head shots". And I said and repeat--it is one thing to drive like you want in a car with one person who is fully cognizant of the dangers---and in a car with a carefully designed and built cage.
And we saw that at times he clearly didn't care if the car was destroied.
It is quite another to be do aerobatics and playing the fool in quote "deteriorating weather conditions" in a helicopter you have as a toy, jerking the thing around just to scare a couple of boys and a neighbor----and not have enough sense of responsibility to not kill them all.
So as a driver...GOOD.
As a human----bad.John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle WA, USA
Vive le Prole-le-ralliat
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6th September 2011, 16:32 #9
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Originally Posted by janvanvurpa
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6th September 2011, 17:05 #10
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Originally Posted by Bazza2541Satakymppi, oikee yks
The world's favourite airline (according to their ads)
What's the first thing to come to...