GalaxyFlyer wrote:Everything in aviation history says inadvertent entry into IMC with subsequent loss of control resulting in collision with the terrain. Unless, of course, the physical evidence turns up a tail risk like sudden incapacitation or mechanical failure prior to impact. Very low probability event.
Then, the loudspeaker start closing in, the ground comes and goes and it’s time to “fess up. He likely wasn’t confident of climbing into the clouds and flying IFR, even if he could pull off a pop-up clearance. The operation was a single-pilot VFR operation. the controller asks, “can you maintain visual until xxxx altitude?” Oops, I have to admit I can’t or do I just climb to avoid the ground. It’s a tricky situation. Once, in cloud, it was game over, too late to get a clearance and unsalvagable.
Once he was caught in "no man's land", what were his options? Could he have climbed above the clouds with instruments only? Or is that difficult to do in a heli?
If not, could he have simply landed the heli in a field next to the highway?
