Faulty antenna played role in fatal Australian helicopter crash
BRISBANE — A faulty radio antenna contributed to a deadly mid-air helicopter collision at an Australian theme park and resort, transport safety officials say.
Four people died — including two British tourists — and several more were seriously injured when the two aircraft hit each other in January 2023, near Sea World on the Gold Coast.
An investigation by Australia's Transport and Safety Bureau (ATSB) found one of the pilots did not hear a vital radio call shortly before the accident, and that a series of changes by Sea World meant risk controls were over time eroded.
The accident rocked the Gold Coast, one of the nation's biggest tourist hotspots.
The two helicopters collided around 20 seconds after one had taken off and as the other was landing.
Those who died were all travelling in the helicopter which was taking off. The other aircraft managed to make an emergency landing, with passengers suffering a range of injuries.
The ATSB report found that in the months leading up to the accident, Sea World had tried to improve its offering of leisure flights by adding a second helipad location and introducing larger Eurocopter EC140 B4 helicopters.
"Over time, these changes undermined risk controls used to manage traffic separation and created a conflict point between launching and departing helicopters," it said.
The aircraft preparing to take off also had a faulty antenna.
In the run-up to the collision, a call from the arriving helicopter was either not received or not heard by the pilot on the ground, who was loading passengers at the time.
However, once the passengers were on board, a ground crew member advised the departing helicopter pilot that the airspace was clear. By the time the chopper took off, though, that information was no longer correct.
Meanwhile the pilot who was wanting to land after a five-minute scenic flight had seen the other helicopter on the ground but didn't deem it a threat, the report said.
He would have expected to have been alerted by a "taxiing" radio call if that situation changed. However the faulty antenna likely prevented the broadcast of the taxiing call, the report said.
"Without the taxiing call being received, the pilot of the inbound helicopter, who was likely focusing on their landing site, had no trigger to reassess the status of the departing helicopter as a collision risk."
Among those who died were Diane Hughes, 57, and her 65-year-old husband Ron who were from Neston, Cheshire. They had married in 2022 and were on holiday visiting relatives after being separated by COVID.
The "fun-loving" couple from Neston, Cheshire, had "a zest for life", their family said in a statement at the time.
Also killed was Sydney resident Vanessa Tadros, 36, and 40-year-old Sea World Helicopters pilot Ashley Jenkinson, who was originally from Birmingham.
A further six people were seriously injured while three others sustained minor injuries in the crash.
Shortly after the accident, the passengers on the flight that was returning hailed the pilot as a "hero" for landing the helicopter safely.
In all, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau made 28 findings that underline "key lessons" for operators and pilots.
"The most fundamental lesson from this investigation is that making changes to aviation operations, even those that appear to increase safety, can have unintended consequences," ATSB Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said.
"It is therefore critical that changes to aviation operations are managed through the implementation of a defined process to ensure overall safety is not adversely affected." — BBC
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Leaders
7 days ago
- Leaders
Ex Biden Official Accuses Israel of Committing ‘War Crimes' in Gaza
Former US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller stated that he believes Israel has committed 'war crimes' in Gaza, according to Sky News. Despite denying this fact during press conferences held under the Biden administration, Miller confessed that Israel undoubtedly committed crimes during its war in Gaza since October 2023. 'It is without a doubt true that Israel has committed war crimes,' he told British media Sky News. He also noted that he could not have unveiled this opinion while he served as the US State Department spokesperson. 'While you're at the podium you're not expressing your personal opinion, you're expressing the conclusions of the United States government,' he said. Although many pioneering genocide scholars in the world state that Israel's actions in Gaza constitute a genocide, Miller rejected to call it a genocide. Miller said it was an 'open question' whether Israel 'has pursued a policy to deliberately committing war crimes or is acting reckless in a way that aids and abets war crimes.' However, he said that it was 'almost certainly' that individual Israeli military members committed war crimes. Related Topics: Pressures Mount for Netanyahu after Biden's Gaza Proposal UK Lawyers Target 10 Britons Over Alleged Gaza War Crimes Saudi Arabia Condemns Israeli Force's War Crimes in Gaza Short link : Post Views: 91 Related Stories
Al Arabiya
01-06-2025
- Al Arabiya
China accuses US's Hegseth of ‘vilifying' remarks at security forum
China has protested to the United States over 'vilifying' remarks made by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the foreign ministry said on Sunday, while accusing it of deliberately ignoring calls for peace from regional nations. China has objected to Hegseth calling it a threat in the Indo-Pacific, the ministry added, describing his comments at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday as 'deplorable' and "intended to sow division.' 'Hegseth deliberately ignored the call for peace and development by countries in the region, and instead touted the Cold War mentality for bloc confrontation, vilified China with defamatory allegations, and falsely called China a 'threat',' the ministry said on its website. 'The United States has deployed offensive weaponry in the South China Sea and kept stoking flames and creating tensions in the Asia-Pacific, which are turning the region into a powder keg,' the ministry added in the statement. Hegseth had called on allies in the Indo-Pacific region, including key security ally Australia, to spend more on defense after warning of the 'real and potentially imminent' threat from China. Asked about the call to boost defense spending, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government had pledged an extra A$10 billion to defense. 'What we'll do is we'll determine our defense policy,' he told reporters on Sunday, a transcript of his remarks showed. As part of Washington's longstanding defense ties with the Philippines, the US military this year deployed Typhon launchers that can fire missiles to hit targets in both China and Russia from the island of Luzon. China and the Philippines contest sovereignty over some islands and atolls in the South China Sea, with growing maritime run-ins between their coast guards as both vie to patrol the waters. The ministry also warned the United States not to 'play with fire' on the Taiwan question. In his speech at Asia's premier forum for defense leaders, military officials and diplomats, Hegseth said any attempt by China to conquer Taiwan 'would result in devastating consequences.' China has vowed to 'reunify' with the separately governed island, by force if necessary. Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying only the island's people can decide their future.
Saudi Gazette
29-05-2025
- Saudi Gazette
Giant of African literature Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o dies aged 87
NAIROBI — Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, who has died aged 87, was a titan of modern African literature — a storyteller who refused to be bound by jail, exile and illness. His work spanned roughly six decades, primarily documenting the transformation of his country — Kenya — from a colonial subject to a democracy. Ngũgĩ was tipped to win the Nobel Prize for Literature countless times, leaving fans dismayed each time the medal slipped through his fingers. He will be remembered not only as a Nobel-worthy writer, but also as a fierce proponent of literature written in native African languages. Ngũgĩ was born James Thiong'o Ngũgĩ in 1938, when Kenya was under British colonial rule. He grew up in the town of Limuru among a large family of low-income agricultural workers. His parents scrimped and saved to pay for his tuition at Alliance, a boarding school run by British missionaries. In an interview, Ngũgĩ recalled returning home from Alliance at the end of term to find his entire village had been razed by the colonial authorities. His family members were among the hundreds and thousands forced to live in detention camps during a crackdown on the Mau Mau, a movement of independence fighters. The Mau Mau uprising, which lasted from 1952 to 1960, touched Ngũgĩ's life in numerous, devastating ways. In one of the most crushing, Ngũgĩ's brother, Gitogo, was fatally shot in the back for refusing to comply with a British soldier's command. Gitogo had not heard the command because he was deaf. In 1959, as the British struggled to maintain their grip on Kenya, Ngũgĩ left to study in Uganda. He enrolled at Makerere University, which remains one of Africa's most prestigious universities. During a writers' conference at Makerere, Ngũgĩ shared the manuscript for his debut novel with revered Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. Achebe forwarded the manuscript to his publisher in the UK and the book, named Weep Not, Child, was released to critical acclaim in 1964. It was the first major English-language novel to be written by an East African. Ngũgĩ swiftly followed up with two more popular novels, A Grain of Wheat and The River Between. In 1972, the UK's Times newspaper said Ngũgĩ, then aged 33, was "accepted as one of Africa's outstanding contemporary writers". Then came 1977 — a period that marked a huge change in Ngũgĩ's life and career. For starters, this was the year he became Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and shed his birth name, James. Ngũgĩ made the change as he wanted a name free of colonial influence. He also dropped English as the primary language for his literature and vowed to only write in his mother tongue, Kikuyu. He published his last English language novel, Petals of Blood, in 1977. Ngũgĩ's previous books had been critical of the colonial state, but Petals of Blood attacked the new leaders of independent Kenya, portraying them as an elite class who had betrayed ordinary Kenyans. Ngũgĩ didn't stop there. The same year, he co-wrote the play Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want), which was a searing look at Kenya's class struggle. Its theatre run was shut down by the government of then President Jomo Kenyatta and Ngũgĩ was locked up in a maximum security jail for a year without trial. It was a fruitful 12 months, however — as Ngũgĩ wrote his first Kikuyu novel, Devil on the Cross, while in prison. It is said he used toilet paper to write the entire book, as he did not have access to a notebook. Ngũgĩ was released after Daniel arap Moi replaced Kenyatta as president. Ngũgĩ said that four years later, while in London for a book launch, he learned there was a plot to kill him on his return to Kenya. Ngũgĩ began self-imposed exile in the UK and then the US. He did not return to Kenya for 22 years. When he finally did return, he received a hero's welcome — thousands of Kenyans turned out to greet him. But the homecoming was marred when assailants broke into Ngũgĩ's apartment, brutally attacking the author and raping his wife. Ngũgĩ insisted the assault was "political". He returned to the US, where he had held professorships at universities including Yale, New York and California Irvine. In academia and beyond, Ngũgĩ became known as one of the foremost advocates of literature written in African languages. Throughout his career — and to this day — African literature was dominated by books written in English or French, official languages in most countries on the continent. "What is the difference between a politician who says Africa cannot do without imperialism and the writer who says Africa cannot do without European languages?" Ngũgĩ asked in a seminal, fiery essay collection, named Decolonising the Mind. In one section, Ngũgĩ called out Chinua Achebe — the author who helped to launch his career — for writing in English. Their friendship soured as a result. Away from his literary career, Ngũgĩ was married — and divorced — twice. He had nine children, four of whom are published authors. "My own family has become one of my literary rivals," Ngũgĩ joked in a 2020 LA Times interview. His son, Mukoma wa Ngũgĩ, has alleged that his mother was physically abused by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. "Some of my earliest memories are me going to visit her at my grandmother's where she would seek refuge," his son wrote in a social media post, which Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o did not respond to. Later in his life, Ngũgĩ's health deteriorated. He had triple heart bypass surgery in 2019 and began to struggle with kidney failure. In 1995, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and given three months to live. Ngũgĩ recovered, however, adding cancer to the lengthy list of struggles he had overcome. But now one of African literature's guiding lights — as Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie once called him — is gone, leaving the world of words a little darker. — BBC
