#261 Fatal Accident 4 Souls On Board Flying in to IMC

Hey, day 261 coffee with Kenny. Normally, you know, these are really upbeat and you know, try to have fun. And this today is a serious topic and I debate about doing this one, but I've been thinking about it and I want to cover this fatal accident in the R44. I think it was in Brazil or somewhere. And so many people have seen this video, but I want to cover it again just because when we're making these decisions, vfr, ifr, go, no go. We know people lose their lives going inadvertent imc. Okay, so what I want to show in this video is how blue the skies are at the beginning of the video. I mean, you see right there, look, blue sky, got some big puffy cumulus clouds. But you know, starting off, leaving the airport, blue skies. And we see that a lot, right? And that's going to happen to you if you're brand new to this. A lot of people that watch our videos are experienced pilots and a lot of you have already experienced this and you already know what I'm talking about. This is. I guess I want to gear it more towards new people, right? When you start making these decisions about no go go and no go, that's why you have to understand the weather, the forecast, the Metars temperature, dew point, all the things that go along with that, making these decisions on whether you're going to make a flight or not. And then there's those times where you have to call a flight off. And all I know is what I see really in the video, there's not much in the description about this other than everybody died that's on this aircraft, I think you're gonna see. And the main thing I want to hone in on is the fact that there were times where he should have just landed. And I want to point out some of those. So as normal, when you're getting ready to go, everybody's having a good time, right? Everybody's happy. It's a beautiful day. Bride and groom going for their flight, beautiful day. Everybody's happy. It's exciting. Right now, this video is eight minutes long. So I'm going to kind of skip through here and there and show some pieces and parts of the video. So what I'll point out, as they're a little bit into the flight, if you really look, you can see where there's still green grass, you can still see the ground, but it's, it's overcast now. Visibility, I'm just guessing, looks like it could be a couple miles. But now we're overcast and you can see the ground. But this is already the idea that it's getting ugly, right? So at this point a person needs to be thinking, wow, is this a flight that I want to continue on, especially in a VFR aircraft? Or about a minute and 51 into the video at this point right here where I stopped it. So let's go a little further. Alright, here's a little better view. As you keep watching, you can still see. Starting to get worse though. Starting to get some more clouds. You still see the ground but it's starting to get ugly. A little bit of clouds going by the side of the aircraft is going to get worse here in a minute. This is where they probably should have been turning around or getting on the ground. And you can see during this video, you can see their faces start to change. You can tell when they start getting scared and know something's wrong. Look at there. Look how we're getting even more clouds going by the window. Look at the visibility coming down. Okay, now look ahead, you can see just a little bit. He can barely see the ground at this point, but he keeps tooling along. So this is ugly. I would not be in this. And he should have been getting on the freaking ground. Alright, let's go a little further. We're three minutes in now and you can see in his face. I see in his face he's worried. He's looking down at the instruments. People in the back are starting to look concerned. You can tell this guy in the back, I don't know if he's a pilot or not, but you can tell he's getting nervous. He gets nervous before she does. Things are bouncing around. He's looking kind of funny. So it's already getting weird. And when you look outside the sides of the window, you know, it's getting pretty thick. It's getting really thick. Why are we still flying? All right now I can see it in his face now. He is getting scared. He can still barely see the ground. We're four minutes into the flight or four minutes into this video anyway. Barely see the ground, only almost nothing left. What's he do? Keeps flying. Now he's looking. Look where he turns here. He's got a turn going on. There's his opportunity right there. Boom. He's looking out. You saw he was kind of turning or it looked like he was turning. He's looking to the right. He knows he's in freaking trouble, right? There was a green patch. He looks like he's kind of turning. Why didn't he just turn right, descend, turn right, get on the frickin ground. We're 4 minutes and 29 seconds in. It's be to going, go a little further now. I can see it in his face, he knows he's screwed. What was he thinking? Who knows other than I'm screwed. I'm going to get us out of this somehow. Why? Why do you keep going? Why, why, why, why, why, why? I don't get it now. You can see it in their faces getting even worse. Getting even worse. You know, we're done past the stupid point. Why is he still flying? I don't know. Five minutes in. So we've been flying into the soup for at least three to four minutes. And you can. And when you really look into the video, you can see it gets worse, it gets worse, it gets worse. Passengers looking outside going, what in the heck? They know this ain't right. She's trying to make fun light of the situation because she's probably scared out of her mind. Five minutes, 30 seconds. Now I'm seeing nothing on this. I'm seeing nothing. You can't see the ground. Ground is gone. You don't see it out the side windows, you don't see it out the front. He is flying fricking blind in a VFR helicopter. We're six minutes in. I'm surprised they survived this long. There's normally 45 seconds when you go into the clouds before you're going to lose it and kill yourself. So he's made it this far and I guess look at his face, he's scared. I'm going to turn up a little bit of volume because I'm sure we're about to hear that low horn go off. Six and a half minutes, rotors coming down, sounds like, here we go. This swear goes ugly. Seven minutes into the video. There, there it goes, there went the horn. You're gonna see the aircraft turn, you're gonna see the pilot like leaning all the way to the left or being forced to the left. Seconds to hit the ground. Boom. And there's the flashing light. You know, it just, it does, it turns the stomach. It turns my stomach. And I know I viewed it before and I'm surprised this is even really on YouTube actually. But you know, let's take it as a learning experience. That guy had a lot of time to make a decision to get on the ground and it went on, get out of here, fly. And he just, God, why didn't he land? Why did he keep going? I have no idea. It just, you Know, it just makes you think. And there's those of us that have done stupid stuff and been in situations maybe that start to look like that. I swear to God, I've never flown anything that bad for that long. I have had some scares and there's those times where you, you push along and when that visibility starts coming down like that, I get freaking nervous. And there's a point where I'm just going to land or I'm going to turn around. And when I was younger, I'd be a little more risky, right? And the longer you're in this business and the longer you're around helicopters and the more people that you lose that, you know, in aircraft accidents where someone, you know, flew into the clouds, ran out of fuel, walked into a tail rotor, whatever the case is, you know, you get, you get these wake up calls, right? And I just want to roll this today. And with all the talking that we do in 10 years of making videos, eight years of online ground school, I am always preaching about go, no go and knowing the weather and understanding. I wanted to share that video or take a look at just because you can see. Starts out beautiful day, little bit of clouds, but hey, looks great, right? And within five minutes of that flight you went from, well, we can kind of see, but it's getting iffy. Plenty of time to get underground and they just kept going. And I personally, I could see it in his face. I could see it in the pilot's face. He knew he was, you know, he knew he'd overstepped his bounds there and he knew it wasn't good. And I'm sure he was probably, I'm not sure I shouldn't say I'm sure. Guessing that he was hoping he was going to pop out of it and he didn't. And it killed everybody. Food for thought. Day 261 Day to be negative Nancy. It's not being negative, Nancy. I just, man, it's just gut wrenching. It's just, it's gut wrenching every time I freaking watch that video. But, you know, let's take these things and learn. And if you haven't reviewed your decision making lately, if you haven't reviewed weather, if weather's changing in your area like it is here, we're now into the beginning of fall for us here in the Midwest and this where it gets serious for us. You know, we've had kind of a rainy summer, but you still have a lot of really nice days where all you gotta do is look outside and you know, you know severe clear. Man, you can fly for miles. But we're gonna get into that area now where we're gonna start having fog a month away or two months away from starting getting some snow. And this is when it gets hairy for us in the Midwest, and it's just time to buckle down. So for those of you living in those areas, start thinking about fall, coming fall and winter, and the temperature, dew, point spread, and all that happy stuff that goes along with making these decisions. All right, thanks for tuning in for day 261. Leave us comment down below. Subscribe to Channel Click the bell and we'll see in day 262. Peace out.