A quick risk assessment could have been carried out, chuck another lawyer down, if it didn't collapse try another couple - but wait for a few days just to be certain. 
Where are our hero's?
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Interesting but I fear the balloon would have to be too huge to fit in the helicopter. Look at how big a normal balloon is to keep that wee basket aloft. The downdraught would pull it into the rotors anyway. UK stats seem to be 3.1 deaths per Million man hours. Something must be wrong as Norway seems to be 0.9. I believe these figures only relate to North Sea oil choppers though.
If you ever go on one you will understand how it's possible to have so many mechanical failures.....They are complicated and it feels like they literally shake themselves to pieces.
I quite enjoy flying on them but can't say I'm looking forward to the pilot shouting "Brace brace brace".
I've seen pictures of a helicopter ejector seat system - yes, really! The rotors are first jettisoned using explosive bolts and then the ejector seats fire.
No help to anyone on the ground, of course.
In my humble opinion it would be better to jettison the cockpit area and deploy a parachute, I'll phone Martin Baker and get him to knock something up.
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I've seen pictures of a helicopter ejector seat system - yes, really! The rotors are first jettisoned using explosive bolts and then the ejector seats fire.
No help to anyone on the ground, of course.
Aye on a military spec chopper maybe. I don't think 18 people ejecting into an engine and gearbox will work.
Amazingly, it didn't catch fire, or the death toll would have been much much higher, those who were trapped under the ruble would have certainly died of fire and smoke related causes. Most likely it ran out of fuel!
I saw the pictures on the news of the helicopter being lifted out, I could see a Mosque in the background just yards away, and I can't help thinking what the Moslems would have said had the helicopter crashed into the Mosque, Oh the police helicopter pilot deliberately targeted the Mosque!
I saw the pictures on the news of the helicopter being lifted out, I could see a Mosque in the background just yards away, and I can't help thinking what the Moslems would have said had the helicopter crashed into the Mosque, Oh the police helicopter pilot deliberately targeted the Mosque!
I've seen pictures of a helicopter ejector seat system - yes, really! The rotors are first jettisoned using explosive bolts and then the ejector seats fire.
No help to anyone on the ground, of course.
In my humble opinion it would be better to jettison the cockpit area and deploy a parachute, I'll phone Martin Baker and get him to knock something up.
Not much good if they're flying low, though. Ejector seats would give them some altitude before the parachutes open.
Aye on a military spec chopper maybe. I don't think 18 people ejecting into an engine and gearbox will work.
Yes, it was a military heliocopeter.
Have you sent off your application yet, to be a volunteer firefighter or lifeboatman?
As it's now a recovery operation, would you rather they now risk their lives , searching for bodies. ???
It helps to have the full information before making such statements.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-25190050
Ayrshire has 5 fulltime stations that I know of, Kilmarnock, Ayr, Irvine North, Dreghorn and Ardrossan.
Kilmarnock attended the incident with the solicitor, Alison Hume, who fell down the mine shaft. They had lifting equipment with them and went down to her but the equipment was for rescue of firefighters only and they were not allowed by the bosses to bring her up.
Are they not called Scottish fire and rescue ?
The investigators could not find any mechanical failure on that Pub helicopter crash, but another one somewhere has been found to be indicating incorrect fuel level, most crashes result in fire, this one didn't go up in flames, there by a possibility that it ran out of fuel and dived down and the pilot was unable to glide it down safely.
I remember how one VW Polo had a defied a mechanic friend as one after another fuel pumps kept failing, after replacing 3 fuel pumps, he asked me for my expertise, so i said let us start with a broken pump, so I cut it open, to see what was making it go wrong.
I could not see anything obvious inside, the pumps were suffering from sticky gears, and so my suspicion was on fuel contamination.
After performing a postmortem on one fuel pump, I could see how it was put together and how to un-crimp its aluminium housing and free its gears and refit things again and re-crimp it back and that way I rescued two jammed up pumps, to keep trying to see if they would jam again, and they did, so by now his car had 5 times its pumps fuel pump changed, throughout, I have been telling the owner that somehow his fuel must be contaminated, I took a sample of his fuel and allowed it to evaporate, against a sample of fuel from my car, in smell, and colour both fuels looked identical, but upon evaporation, the faulty fuel had larger oily residue! both had some oily residue, but his one had a larger impression!
So by now both the owner and the mechanic were sick to teeth, and the mechanic gave up altogether, but I do not like accepting defeats be it a gas boiler or a car fuel pump or a jet engine, i will sort it out!
Except a boiler,of course, because i don't want to blow myself up do I! like I can't blow myself with petrol vapours!
Any ways, the owner had by now spent over £200 in buying 3 used pumps from a second hand parts dealer, (Scarp yard) plus the mechanics initial labour of approx £80.00.
The owner was now suggesting taking his car to a main dealer, and that is when I stepped in, because I felt sorry that he has spent £200.00 and got no where and now he will be taking it to a dealer who will go for a brand new OEM Pump, that may alone cost well over £200 and plus garage labour of over £100.00 per hour! and it will probably end up getting up jammed and the garage will not entertain any warranty since his fuel was contaminated, so this could well end up costing him well over a grand!
So I offered him a challenge, that I will not charge him anything, and I have already rescued his jammed pumps, so I won't even need to purchase another pump, but all he has to do is to allow me to drain his half full tank and whilst I clean his tank, and he pays for refuelling it, and then I will offer him unquestionable guarantee, he agreed, next day I drained out all his fuel, (Fire extinguisher on the stand by)
Refilled his tank with fresh fuel, refitted a pump that I had repaired, now this is a pump that is sealed or or unserviceable, but nothing is beyond me!
Car started OK, as it did each time before after replacing pumps, but we have to wait until next day to see if it has jammed again, next day I phoned the owner, and he said everything is fine it started OK, and not jamm like all other pumps would jam up for some reason the next day, so I told this owner, that will live by my promise, and still come to his rescue if it ever jams again and gave him 6 months warranty.
Then a week later, his car started and spluttered to a halt in an Asda car park about 4 miles from his home! He called the emergency rescue and they towed his car home, his fuel gauge was showing 1/4 tank!
He rang me and off I went like a lightening, I was very very curious and knew logically it should not now jam like it did before because I suspected the fuel was at fault.
So what could be wrong now? I undid the pump located from under the rear seat, and was shocked to see not a drop of fuel in the tank!
So this was a good news to my ears, at least it is not the pump but the fact that there is no fuel in the tank, but why is the gauge showing 1/4 tank full!
So this was basically due to the previous mechanic who bought various pumps was sold a pump for a a Golf GTI rather than for a Polo!
the floating arm had a different angle or level that was not noted by the mechanic and so I took it for guaranteed that the pump was correct, so after that I readjusted his float arm to a correct level, such that when his gauge reaches the RED area, he still has approx 10 litres of fuel as a reserve!
Since then I have not heard from the owner, but sadly the git owes me £12.00 for the fuel I had to go get it from a garage to put it in his tank, to set his gauge correctly, after we drove his car to a garage where we purchased another 25 litres of fuel and this time his guage showed exactly half full tank as that is what it is suppose to show, leaving about 10 liters as reserve.
My reward in doing this was achieving immense satisfaction, and I manged to burn that 25 liters of contaminated fuel in one trip to see my brother, saving myself around £32.00 worth of fuel, and my car drove fine and since I also diluted it with already what was in my tank.
I remember how one VW Polo had a defied a mechanic friend as one after another fuel pumps kept failing, after replacing 3 fuel pumps, he asked me for my expertise, so i said let us start with a broken pump, so I cut it open, to see what was making it go wrong.
I could not see anything obvious inside, the pumps were suffering from sticky gears, and so my suspicion was on fuel contamination.
After performing a postmortem on one fuel pump, I could see how it was put together and how to un-crimp its aluminium housing and free its gears and refit things again and re-crimp it back and that way I rescued two jammed up pumps, to keep trying to see if they would jam again, and they did, so by now his car had 5 times its pumps fuel pump changed, throughout, I have been telling the owner that somehow his fuel must be contaminated, I took a sample of his fuel and allowed it to evaporate, against a sample of fuel from my car, in smell, and colour both fuels looked identical, but upon evaporation, the faulty fuel had larger oily residue! both had some oily residue, but his one had a larger impression!
So by now both the owner and the mechanic were sick to teeth, and the mechanic gave up altogether, but I do not like accepting defeats be it a gas boiler or a car fuel pump or a jet engine, i will sort it out!
Except a boiler,of course, because i don't want to blow myself up do I! like I can't blow myself with petrol vapours!
Any ways, the owner had by now spent over £200 in buying 3 used pumps from a second hand parts dealer, (Scarp yard) plus the mechanics initial labour of approx £80.00.
The owner was now suggesting taking his car to a main dealer, and that is when I stepped in, because I felt sorry that he has spent £200.00 and got no where and now he will be taking it to a dealer who will go for a brand new OEM Pump, that may alone cost well over £200 and plus garage labour of over £100.00 per hour! and it will probably end up getting up jammed and the garage will not entertain any warranty since his fuel was contaminated, so this could well end up costing him well over a grand!
So I offered him a challenge, that I will not charge him anything, and I have already rescued his jammed pumps, so I won't even need to purchase another pump, but all he has to do is to allow me to drain his half full tank and whilst I clean his tank, and he pays for refuelling it, and then I will offer him unquestionable guarantee, he agreed, next day I drained out all his fuel, (Fire extinguisher on the stand by)
Refilled his tank with fresh fuel, refitted a pump that I had repaired, now this is a pump that is sealed or or unserviceable, but nothing is beyond me!
Car started OK, as it did each time before after replacing pumps, but we have to wait until next day to see if it has jammed again, next day I phoned the owner, and he said everything is fine it started OK, and not jamm like all other pumps would jam up for some reason the next day, so I told this owner, that will live by my promise, and still come to his rescue if it ever jams again and gave him 6 months warranty.
Then a week later, his car started and spluttered to a halt in an Asda car park about 4 miles from his home! He called the emergency rescue and they towed his car home, his fuel gauge was showing 1/4 tank!
He rang me and off I went like a lightening, I was very very curious and knew logically it should not now jam like it did before because I suspected the fuel was at fault.
So what could be wrong now? I undid the pump located from under the rear seat, and was shocked to see not a drop of fuel in the tank!
So this was a good news to my ears, at least it is not the pump but the fact that there is no fuel in the tank, but why is the gauge showing 1/4 tank full!
So this was basically due to the previous mechanic who bought various pumps was sold a pump for a a Golf GTI rather than for a Polo!
the floating arm had a different angle or level that was not noted by the mechanic and so I took it for guaranteed that the pump was correct, so after that I readjusted his float arm to a correct level, such that when his gauge reaches the RED area, he still has approx 10 litres of fuel as a reserve!
Since then I have not heard from the owner, but sadly the git owes me £12.00 for the fuel I had to go get it from a garage to put it in his tank, to set his gauge correctly, after we drove his car to a garage where we purchased another 25 litres of fuel and this time his guage showed exactly half full tank as that is what it is suppose to show, leaving about 10 liters as reserve.
My reward in doing this was achieving immense satisfaction, and I manged to burn that 25 liters of contaminated fuel in one trip to see my brother, saving myself around £32.00 worth of fuel, and my car drove fine and since I also diluted it with already what was in my tank.
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