3 years after a fatal helicopter crash in the Cave Creek area north of Scottsdale, AZ, the NTSB has released their "probable cause" and yet again, as I've mentioned many times before, the probable cause is only a theory with no direct evidence of any kind to link it to the accident at hand. Unfortunately, when the NTSB does this, these probably cause statements become statements of fact, even when there's no evidence supporting the cause given. This frustrates me to no end as an accident investigator myself.
NTSB...I know you guys don't like loose ends..neither do I. But there are accidents where the cause might be an unknown, and in your own history you've had a number of accidents where you've written that "the probable cause of this accident could not be determined".
In this case, I personally would've written the probable cause as "the NTSB has determined that this accident was caused by a flexing of the main rotor system severe enough to cause blade-to-tailboom contact and subsequent separation of the tail rotor driveshaft and loss of anti-torque control. This loss of anti-torque occurred in a critical flight regime where aircraft control could not be maintained. The reason(s) for the severe flexing of the main rotor system is unable to be determined." Writing up a probable cause that has no basis in known fact only serves to do a disservice to aviation safety as a whole, as it's not only inaccurate or completely wrong as a safety causal factor, it affects the integrity of the aviation safety process and focuses attention on items that are no more than a red herring.
NTSB...I know you guys don't like loose ends..neither do I. But there are accidents where the cause might be an unknown, and in your own history you've had a number of accidents where you've written that "the probable cause of this accident could not be determined".
In this case, I personally would've written the probable cause as "the NTSB has determined that this accident was caused by a flexing of the main rotor system severe enough to cause blade-to-tailboom contact and subsequent separation of the tail rotor driveshaft and loss of anti-torque control. This loss of anti-torque occurred in a critical flight regime where aircraft control could not be maintained. The reason(s) for the severe flexing of the main rotor system is unable to be determined." Writing up a probable cause that has no basis in known fact only serves to do a disservice to aviation safety as a whole, as it's not only inaccurate or completely wrong as a safety causal factor, it affects the integrity of the aviation safety process and focuses attention on items that are no more than a red herring.
