Gig 601XL Builder wrote:
Hilton wrote:
Al,

Exactly. Doesn't matter how often and vocal the 'see and avoid' crowd
shouts, the truth is that 'see and avoid' does not work 100% of the
time. It obviously really really helps, but for Ol Shy and Bashful to
say that it was "SEE AND AVOID - someone screwed up" is nonsense. The
NTSB reports are littered with accidents and near misses where
the pilots never saw each other, the San Diego midair being a very
important one in the history of aviation.

Hilton

You are right but this isn't one of those times. Those pilots new well or
should have known well that other news copters were in the area covering
the same story.

Correct, there is absolutely no doubt they knew there were other aircraft
(very) near them. Let's assume that their attention was 100% outside with
perfect see-and-avoid scans etc. Still doesn't mean that either aircraft
even saw the other. Look, we have very few specifics about the accident, so
there is no way we can sit here and declare that the pilots definitely saw
each other and therefore see-n-avoid would have worked.

This all fits into the 'gees, what idiots, that'll never happen to me'. I
think that is a very dangerous attitude.

Hilton