Investigators probing one of the worst losses of life in a single crash of a firefighting aircraft in Portugal have come to a devastating conclusion: “there are serious failings in the training, and control, of pilots hired to fly (these) aircraft”.
GPIAAF – the office for the prevention and investigation of aircraft and railway accidents – has now sent out recommendations to all entities involved, including companies hired by the state to provide firefighting planes and helicopters.
The move follows the final results of the investigation into the accident lthat claimed the lives of five elite GNR firefighters last year.
Pilot Luís Rebelo has already been cited for negligent homicide, but it transpires that his description of ‘all instruments failing’ could not have been correct.
According to Airbus, which analysed the helicopter’s black box, there were no mechanical faults, writes Correio da Manhã today.
GPIAAF has subsequently concluded that the accident was caused by “the decision of the pilot in the choice of route” which involved flying over the Douro at speed and low altitude “considerably increasing the flight’s risks”.
GPIAAF’s report was necessarily technical, but it boiled down to “the normalisation of short-cuts and generalised acceptance among those involved in the aerial combat of fires of practices of overflying determined areas at low altitude, without operational motive – and the absence of flight supervision by the operator, contracted for the service and the authority certifying the operation”, writes CM.
In simple terms, GPIAAF is recommending that pilots of firefighting planes and helicopters in future have similar controls on their activities/ performance that long-distance lorry drivers have.
Regarding the Douro tragedy specifically, CM adds that thanks to the information extracted from the black box, investigators “point the blame exclusively on the pilot”, who is already banned from flying pending trial for the negligent homicide of all five victims.
CM adds that the Association of GNR Professionals has also revealed that the five had not received any kind of training on how to ‘exit a submersed aircraft’.
Source material: Correio da Manhã
