Pilot uses fashlight to signal for help after ditching aircraft at sea

FPSRelic · Sep 4, 2012

I was just watching a show called Four Corners (a current affair show aired on the Australian ABC channel), that talked about a Care flight plane that ditched in rough seas near Norfolk Island at night after running out of fuel, unable to land at it's original destination due to extremely rough weather. The pilot, Dominic James, was able to bring the plane down in a way that allowed all six passengers, including a patient with a serious medical condition, to survive. The pilot was later dragged through the coals by CASA for not loading enough fuel to cater for an aternative landing.

Reasons for the crash aside, an interesting part that the flashaholic in me saw, was the fact that the pilot used a small torch to signal for his rescue. This is important, as the rescue boat sent to look for them, was concentrating on searching for them to the South of the Island.

Below is a section quoted from the transcript of the Four Corners episode here:

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2012/08/30/3579404.htm
(Not sure if people outseide Australia can view the actual show, but it's worth a look if you're interested and can)

GEOFF THOMSON is the reporter, DOMINIC JAMES is the pilot, KAREN CASEY is a careflight nurse and passenger, GARY CURRALL is another passenger and husband of the patient. SCOTT GREENWOOD is a firefighter on Norfolk Island, GLENN ROBINSON is a member of the rescue crew, DARREN BATES is the skipper of the only rescue boat looking for the downed aircraft.

(Reconstruction of rescue boat heading out)
GEOFF THOMSON: With no plane crash on the island, local firefighter Scott Greenwood has been told to go home.

SCOTT GREENWOOD, FIREFIGHTER: I left the station and thought 'well I'm not going home, 'cause there's six people out there fighting for their life somewhere'. So I thought 'maybe he's ditched off the western end of the Island'.

(Reconstruction of Dominic James in the water)

GEOFF THOMSON: Swimming without a life vest, Dominic James brushes against a small LED (Light-Emitting Diode) torch in his shirt pocket.

DOMINIC JAMES: And to my surprise I reached for it and turned it on and realised it still worked very well. It was incredibly bright for such a small torch.

KAREN CASEY: He yelled out to us that he's found the torch, and we're all just praying that it worked.

GARY CURRALL: He propelled himself up by obviously kicking his legs, and directing the torch towards the island and flickering it backwards and forwards. Yeah, that was - that's quite a clear memory.

(Reconstruction of Scott Greenwood in his car)
SCOTT GREENWOOD: Turned my lights off and straight away I saw this faint glow and I wasn't sure whether it was just my eyes tricking me or - it was that faint.

GEOFF THOMSON: There is no moon that night. Only blackness.

SCOTT GREENWOOD: I got out of the car and let my eyes adjust a bit more, and sure enough, there was definitely something out there that I could see every now and then. Just a little greenish light.

GARY CURRALL: We might have flickered that torch all night long but if somebody hadn't have been there to see it, what would have been the use.

GEOFF THOMSON: Scott Greenwood reports what he's seen.

SCOTT GREENWOOD (reconstruction): Yeah there's something out the west here.

GLENN ROBINSON: Somebody's called in and said that they thought they saw some lights off to the west.' And I was like 'oh well, you beauty, we'll take that because we've got nothing else to go on'.

DARREN BATES (skipper of rescue boat): So we pointed the boat in a westerly direction and steamed that way for, I guess, 10 minutes, while I got the radar up and running. There was one particular blip there that kept coming up, and we just set auto-pilot straight for that, expecting it to be a wreckage or something.
KAREN CASEY: That was at that point that I saw the green light to my right.

(Reconstruction of rescue)

GARY CURRALL: We'd been through this before and light reflections off the water had turned out not to be a boat. But it didn't seem worth getting our hopes up and all of a sudden it was there, there was a boat.

AARON GRAHAM, DECKHAND (reconstruction): I can see four, four lights

GEOFF THOMSON: Deckhand Aaron Graham spots lights in the water.

Dim lights on life vests.

DARREN BATES: The we got closer and closer and then, all of a sudden, got the spotlight on and there were these people in the water. It was just so exciting when we saw these people were alive, and arms going like this (waves arms above his head).

GLENN ROBINSON: It gives me goose bumps still, thinking about it, recalling that, that there's six of them in the water. They were all alive, you know, they've ditched a jet plane into a rolling ocean in the middle of the night and here they are. It's just incredible, it really was.

GEOFF THOMSON: Dominic James now flies charters and trains other pilots on the outskirts of Sydney.
CASA has reinstated most of his licences.

He still keeps a tiny torch within easy reach.

Not sure if this belongs in the "flashlights in the media" thread, but since it's a bit lengthy, I figure I'd create a new post., but it just goes to show that EDCing a torch does sometimes save your life

bnemmie · Sep 4, 2012

Is that that an Inova X1?

John_Galt · Sep 4, 2012

It looks like an X1 to me. Huh, good that it worked when he needed it.

FPSRelic · Sep 4, 2012

Are Inova X1's any good? Maybe there is a lesson to be learned to always carry a decent torch with you at all times?

Burgess · Sep 4, 2012

Very interesting thread here !

Thank you for posting this.

:thumbsup:

BTW -- I carried (EDC) an Inova X-1 (generation 2, made in USA) for a while.

Dropped it 1 meter, onto a hardwood floor, and it Never Worked Again !

:thumbsdow:thumbsdow:thumbsdow

fyrstormer · Sep 4, 2012

Given a flashlight with a suitable diameter, I wonder if a piece of hot-water-pipe foam insulation attached to the head would make a decent "lifejacket" for a light, so it could be left floating and blinking while pointing upwards towards any possible air rescuers.

EDIT: Also, a diffuser would help too. If it were epoxied in-place, it could trap air to help the light float, as well as giving the light a wider viewable angle. Actually, I could see a market for floating, self-activating (when wet) LED strobe lamps that could be kept in airplanes and boats, assuming such a thing doesn't already exist.

FPSRelic · Sep 4, 2012

Burgess said:
Very interesting thread here !

Thank you for posting this.

:thumbsup:

BTW -- I carried (EDC) an Inova X-1 (generation 2, made in USA) for a while.

Dropped it 1 meter, onto a hardwood floor, and it Never Worked Again !

:thumbsdow:thumbsdow:thumbsdow

No worries

I figured people here would get a buzz out of this story.

Interesting info on the Inova. Maybe I should track the pilot down and give him a 4 sevens or fenix or surefire or somthing

Probably a nice pen light like the preon 2 or ld05?

FPSRelic · Sep 4, 2012

fyrstormer said:
Given a flashlight with a suitable diameter, I wonder if a piece of hot-water-pipe foam insulation attached to the head would make a decent "lifejacket" for a light, so it could be left floating and blinking while pointing upwards towards any possible air rescuers.

EDIT: Also, a diffuser would help too. If it were epoxied in-place, it could trap air to help the light float, as well as giving the light a wider viewable angle. Actually, I could see a market for floating, self-activating (when wet) LED strobe lamps that could be kept in airplanes and boats, assuming such a thing doesn't already exist.

I like the idea, but I think a better idea would be to attach said light to the life vests people use. That would give you your bouyancy and give more of a guarantee that the light will be with you when you need it. I think they hsve somthing like this already?

Illum · Sep 4, 2012

Burgess said:
BTW -- I carried (EDC) an Inova X-1 (generation 2, made in USA) for a while.
Dropped it 1 meter, onto a hardwood floor, and it Never Worked Again !

:thumbsdow:thumbsdow:thumbsdow

Yep, had he crashed with a thud, it would probably fail too.
Have you checked this thread? Apparently its a common problem for Gen 2s, and the thread shows one solution to go about it. Mine came back to life this way, then walked away one day without letting me know where its going :thinking:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?190453

LightCrazy · Sep 4, 2012

Great story. I also like the idea of the pipe foam around a light of the right diameter. Fishermen, anybody on the water could make a floatation device for their light for next to nothing! I think I am going to prepare some myself for the next time I go to the lake.

Burgess · Sep 4, 2012

Hello Illum --

After the incident, i mailed my broken X-1 back to Inova.

Told them how it had been my trusted friend for more than a Year,
and i would REALLY want to have THIS SAME UNIT repaired, and returned to me.

Alas -- it was not to be. :sigh:

Inova simply sent me a New X-1.

This replacement was what was commonly called "Generation 2.5".

Not at ALL what i wanted.

Still have that replacement X-1.

But i never use it.

:awman:

_

Illum · Sep 4, 2012

Burgess said:
_

+1

M@elstrom · Sep 5, 2012

Glad to hear his flashlight helped Dominic out when he most needed it... great post thanks FPSRelic :thumbsup:

Makes me aggravated that someone doing the best they could working within the policies/regulations set down and relying on the accuracy of information provided is hung out to dry in such a fashion...

FPSRelic · Sep 5, 2012

M@elstrom said:
Glad to hear his flashlight helped Dominic out when he most needed it... great post thanks FPSRelic :thumbsup:

Makes me aggravated that someone doing the best they could working within the policies/regulations set down and relying on the accuracy of information provided is hung out to dry in such a fashion...

Agreed. It's very easy to do the "coulda shoulda woulda" routine with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight and two years of research to work out what would have been the best result. It's a different story when you're actually there. Regulators don't seem to believe in the idea of an accident any more, they always figure there is someone to blame.

AnAppleSnail · Sep 5, 2012

FPSRelic said:
Agreed. It's very easy to do the "coulda shoulda woulda" routine with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight and two years of research to work out what would have been the best result. It's a different story when you're actually there. Regulators don't seem to believe in the idea of an accident any more, they always figure there is someone to blame.

Call up a pilot friend and say "So I heard the FAA is revising their incident reports. 'Pilot Error' is already written on the Cause, with details to be filled in." They won't like the joke a bit, but it's so bad it's believable...

fyrstormer · Sep 5, 2012

FPSRelic said:
I like the idea, but I think a better idea would be to attach said light to the life vests people use. That would give you your bouyancy and give more of a guarantee that the light will be with you when you need it. I think they hsve somthing like this already?

I can see the benefit of having marker lights on life vests, but high-intensity strobes right next to your face would be fatiguing after just a few minutes, and it would be a struggle to tolerate them and not try to take your chances with the vest off.

fyrstormer · Sep 5, 2012

FPSRelic said:
Agreed. It's very easy to do the "coulda shoulda woulda" routine with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight and two years of research to work out what would have been the best result. It's a different story when you're actually there. Regulators don't seem to believe in the idea of an accident any more, they always figure there is someone to blame.

That's because it's their job to identify the weakest link in the chain, even if the weakest link is still very strong by itself.

T45 · Sep 5, 2012

[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]A buddy just sent this to me, it's part of a much longer narrative, but I thought this part would be interesting to the Flashaholics here.

The narrative starts with a night landing on a US carrier that has gone terribly wrong. The A-7 Corsair has fallen off the flight deck into the ocean with the pilot still inside. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]

The underwater ejection had jerked my oxygen mask off below my chin. I'd automatically stopped breathing in the immediate rush of black, cold sea water.[/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]And my spatial disorientation in direction . . was ABSOLUTELY . . GONE ! [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif] I continued holding my breath, but I couldn't handle that very long. Terrifyingly, I had no a clue as to whether [/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]the ocean's surface was . . down . . or up. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]The edge of panic struck. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif] I[/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]n less than 60 seconds, I had gone from being a [/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]cocky, self-assured carrier jock . . to a desperate young Navy LTJG . . . fighting to live. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]
Just then, a cluster of lights flickered on the ocean's surface . . touching the periphery of my dulled eyesight. [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Comic Sans MS,sans-serif]THAT DIRECTION WAS UP ![/FONT] [/FONT]

[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif] An 80,000 ton aircraft carrier cutting the water at 30 knots takes a few miles to make a 180 degree course change. The alert night flight-deck directors had tossed their brilliant watertight flashlight wands [/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]over the side to mark [/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]my plane's location to assist the guard boat and rescue helicopter Those gorgeous life-saving bright jewels re-oriented me. With great relief . . [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]I swam up toward them.

[/FONT]

Flying Turtle · Sep 5, 2012

fyrstormer said:
Actually, I could see a market for floating, self-activating (when wet) LED strobe lamps that could be kept in airplanes and boats, assuming such a thing doesn't already exist.

I'm pretty sure I saw something like this at REI a few years ago.

Geoff

dealgrabber2002 · Sep 5, 2012

greenish light eh, must be X1 modded with a XP-G.

Glad they're all okay.

Pilot uses fashlight to signal for help after ditching aircraft at sea

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