IT HAPPENED...

BP Singh, MCPOAOF-II

An Unforgettable Incident

Murphy’s law simply states “If anything can go wrong, it will.”  That’s a rather simplistic approach to the problem of errors, foreseeable or unforeseeable.  I believe the original statement by a certain Flt Lt Murphy of the RAF was one of exasperation at a bumbling technician with words to the effect “if there’s a wrong way to do a thing, he’ll find it!”  Generally speaking that statement is all too true, as I discovered one day long, long ago on board the carrier.

All of us know the rescue hoist fitted on the Chetak.  The hoist is operated by a diver sitting on the third seat in the front row facing backwards who has a grip conveniently located within arm’s length.  Press the rocker switch one way and the hoist goes down; press it the other way and up it comes.  It looks like a pearly white pistol grip, something that would be very comfortable to hold—which it is—and therein lay the problem.

During one of the sailings, a decision was taken to disembark the leave party by Chetak.  I was the chockman for this launch.  To maximise load and minimise the number of sorties, all seats were spoken for, including that of the hoist operator.  The leave party boarded the helicopter and a Leading Cook happened to occupy the aircrew diver’s seat.  Start up and rotor engagement was normal, but when I went to remove the chocks to my horror I noticed that the rescue hoist was operating and coils of wire were slowly unravelling in snaky motions on the deck.  I immediately informed the marshaller, who in turn indicated it to the pilots, and the rescue hoist’s wire was taken in.  The sortie proceeded uneventfully; all’s well that ends well.  I don’t even like to dwell on the consequences of what might have happened had the coils of hoist wire gotten entangled in the rotor blades and whiplashed around the deck.

So why did it happen?  As I’ve said before, the hoist grip looks very inviting to hold.  Now here was a Leading Cook, making his first flight and probably not too happy with the windblown open door atmosphere swirling around in the Chetak.  So he decided to get a good grip on things – literally – and hung on with his thumb clamping down on the rocker switch.  Hoist operation was purely unintentional and even if he had noticed the wire rolling out, he probably wouldn’t have realised that he was the one making it happen – just some pre-flight check the pilots must be carrying out...

Now for the (obvious in hindsight) lessons.  First: don’t seat a passenger on the rescue hoist operator’s seat.  Second: if you have to, warn him in advance not to touch anything.  Have a look around the area to see what all he could possibly touch that may trigger something off.  And last: maybe in future the hoist CB should simply be pulled out!  Of course, thorough pre-flight briefing for passengers is essential.