Another season of turbulent spring weather is just ahead, so it’s a good time to go over storm safety. We’ll do that once again by discussing a pertinent weather-related accident. Although at first glance the lessons might seem obvious, we’ll use this fateful ride-along to discuss some key concepts I’ve observed as a meteorologist, and point out some techniques that you might find useful someday during a rough ride.
Not the Best Day
Our case study takes us to the pre-dawn hours of a stormy March morning in western Tennessee. The accident aircraft was a Eurocopter AS350, registered to a regional hospital network. The helicopter was state of the art, equipped with MFDs, EGPWS, and night vision equipment. During this unsettled night, it arrived at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital with a patient airlifted from a nearby town. After dropping the patient off, the pilot prepared for the westward return flight to its home base in Brownsville, Tennessee, 23 miles away. The time was 0540L (0540 local).
