Pilot blamed for chopper crash

PETALING JAYA: The pilot of the helicopter involved in the fatal crash that killed six people, including former Rompin MP Tan Sri Jamaluddin Jarjis, has been blamed for the tragic incident.
The Air Accidents Investigation Bureau (AAIB), in its 117-page report, said Captain Clifford Fournier failed to conduct detailed damage assessment of the left main landing gear despite knowing there was excessive oil leak.
The AAIB described in its findings that a loud 'thud' was heard on the intercom system when the helicopter landed on the field at Sekolah Kebangsaan Ladang Kota Bahagia to offload one of the passengers.
The passengers and the pilot raised concerns on the loud "thud" but Fournier did not follow up.
According to the report, Fournier was seen by a witness to have exited the helicopter and accompanied a disembarking passenger, Bukit Ibam assemblyman Wan Kadri Wan Mahusain, clear of the main rotor area.
"The horizontal stabiliser structure was damaged without the knowledge of the pilot or any of the passengers.
"The excessive hydraulic fluid found in the hole made by the left landing gear did not trigger any hydraulic warning light during the take-off check performed by the pilot," the investigators said.
The bureau pointed out that the "thud" recorded during the landing had a noise level high enough to trigger the microphone threshold.
The bureau said the information and inspection of the last landing area before the accident revealed that the helicopter had its left main landing gear sunk into loose soil while attempting a landing at the open field.
It added that the left landing gear had sunk to approximately 20 inches deep into the soft ground, causing the helicopter to tilt more than 13 degrees to the left.
"According to the Solid State Combination Cockpit Voice and Flight Data Recorder, the unplanned landing at an open field caused the left main landing gear to sink into loose soil. The vertical fin attached to the LH horizontal stabiliser contacted the soil and subsequently fractured the inboard root of the LH horizontal stabiliser.
"A descending high cruising speed compounded with landing gears down would aerodynamically put excessive loads on the fractured left horizontal stabiliser," the AAIB said in its findings.
The Dauphin Eurocopter AS365N3 crashed on April 4 last year into an area near Kampung Sungai Pening, Semenyih, Selangor killing all on board.
Besides Jamaluddin and Fournier, the other victims were Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak's principal private secretary Datuk Seri Azlin Alias, operations assistant Aidana Baizieva, Jamaluddin's bodyguard Razakan Seran and businessman Datuk Tan Huat Seang.
All the victims were on their way to Subang after attending the wedding reception of Najib's daughter in Pekan, Pahang.