00:00The Australian Transport Safety Bureau reminds helicopter operators involved in over-water operations
00:05of the importance of undertaking Regular Helicopter Underwater Escape Training, or HEWETT,
00:10for all crew and regular passengers, to increase their survivability in the event of an in-water accident or ditching.
00:16Helicopter crews have credited their surviving a collision with water
00:20with the skills and techniques learned and practised as part of undertaking regular HEWETT.
00:25Following an engine failure, the pilot of a UH-1H helicopter, registered Oscar November Zulu,
00:30used his recent HEWETT competency to escape from his submerged helicopter
00:34when it collided with water during firefighting operations near Eden on the New South Wales far south coast in 2020.
00:41I was just in the hollow with the bucket touching the water.
00:44That's when I got a bit of a growling noise, so I dropped the bucket off and I thought,
00:48something bad's going to happen, which it did, so the engine failed and I was just in dead man's curve.
00:53Down to 100 feet, no airspeed, and flew on the pitch.
00:57So, as helicopters do, it rolled upside down and sank to the bottom.
01:04HEWETT involves a replica of a helicopter cabin being lowered into a swimming pool and rolled, inverted,
01:10to simulate an underwater escape scenario.
01:13During the training, students practise bracing for impact,
01:17identifying primary and secondary exit points and surfacing techniques.
01:22HEWETT training, I'm pretty keen on it.
01:26Without a doubt, it saved my life.
01:29I can remember thinking, oh, I've got this, I've been here before.
01:33One of the things that you don't sort of think about when you do the training, it's all the,
01:37you know, OK, this is where I need to put my hands, this is what I need to do,
01:40but it actually mentally calmed me down.
01:44There was no hint of panic because I knew what I'd been doing,
01:47so I think the mental aspect of having done that training,
01:52apart from what you need to do physically, is pretty important
01:56because it just puts you in a better state of mind to handle it.
02:00I was still in the seat when it hit the bottom.
02:02I waited until everything stopped and completely submerged.
02:06That is part of the training too, is you wait for everything to stop before you get out.
02:10If you get out of your seat before things have stopped crashing,
02:14then you just end up a piece of debris.
02:17In addition to Hewitt, the ATSB is also encouraging all crew
02:21and regular passengers involved in overwater operations to carry on them
02:25an emergency breathing system, or EBS,
02:28to provide further survivability in underwater escape occurrences.
02:32What we've found is having an emergency breathing system,
02:35now he didn't have one in this case, and he's been very fortunate
02:39to get a breath of air from the back of the helicopter,
02:41but we've also re-emphasised that importance,
02:44that that would have given him more time,
02:47and particularly if he hadn't had the presence of mind to find a pocket of air,
02:51the emergency breathing system would have given him more time to get up there as well.
02:55So there's some very important safety lessons,
02:57those to be taken away from the rest of the industry.
03:00Ultimately, whilst it was the loss of the aircraft,
03:04it didn't lead to a loss of life,
03:06which is a great outcome in this particular incident.
03:09Research into helicopter overwater accident survival
03:11consistently reports drowning as the leading cause of fatalities
03:15due to the inability of the occupant to hold their breath long enough to escape.
03:19The ATSB takes this opportunity to reinforce the importance
03:23of having Hewitt training, to having it current,
03:27but also to looking at other safety measures that can aid survival,
03:31and an EBS, an emergency breathing system, is one of those such things,
03:34and that's certainly something that we'll be putting out to industry
03:37and to all of those who fly particularly over water,
03:40and it's something that I know that this particular pilot
03:43and his company are adopting now as a policy for their pilots
03:46to have the training, but to have an EBS.
03:49A number of training organisations provide Hewitt courses around Australia.
03:53In addition, there is a range of EBS options available on the market,
03:57including rebreather, compressed air and hybrid options.
04:01To read the investigation report involving Oscar November Zulu
04:05and to learn more about the importance of Hewitt and EBS,
04:08search for AO-2020-003 on the ATSB's website.
04:14And to read the safety advisory notice for all helicopter operators
04:17engaged in over water operations,
04:20search AO-2018-022-SAN-001.
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