Moments before a Eurocopter AS350 B2 took off in fog and darkness from a motor vehicle accident site near Goodman, Alabama, U.S., the 5,300-hour pilot texted a friend that “the other guys would have turned around” rather than fly the emergency medical services (EMS) mission, the final accident report said.
The helicopter crashed into a farmer’s field 90 seconds after takeoff, killing the pilot, who was trained but not current for flight in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC); the patient; and two medical flight crewmembers, according to the report by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The report said the probable cause of the accident, which occurred just after midnight on March 26, 2016, was “the pilot’s decision to perform visual flight rules [VFR] flight into night instrument meteorological conditions, which resulted in loss of control due to spatial disorientation.”
The NTSB identified two contributing factors: “the pilot’s self-in…
