Colin McRae killed in helicopter crash

[Touring Mars]

In the interests of keeping this thread tidy, I have just removed the spam post and the replies to it... please accept my apologies 👍

 

[land sea air]

In the interests of keeping this thread tidy, I have just removed the spam post and the replies to it... please accept my apologies 👍

thank you TM

 

[Tommi]

Sorry to revive the thread with such a sad story, but I think it's something people need to see.

Rally car champion Colin McRae has been blamed for causing the helicopter crash in which he died along with his five-year-old son and two family friends.

A fatal accident inquiry found the crash, near his family home in Lanark in 2007, happened because he carried out unnecessary low-level manoeuvres.

It also found that Mr McRae's flying was "imprudent" and "unreasonable".

In a statement, the McRae family said they "still believe we will never know what caused the crash".....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-14803595

 

[Robin]

I was also just about to update this thread with the news, basically after a lengthy investigation McRae has been blamed for the crash. It's going to be hard for the family to accept that he was at fault. As much as I have respect for McRae I feel lots of race car drivers are quite irresponsible and arrogant when driving off the race track whatever vehicle they are in and it wouldn't surprise me if that was a contributing factor.

 

[Hun200kmh]

Sorry, I'm not a Colin McRae fan or anything, but let's not be hollier than thou about this.

We ALL have had moments in our lives when if luck wasn't there we could have had disastrous consequences upon us and others.

Colin McRae was a brilliant rally driver, a man with a level of skill well beyond what I assume are "normal levels". He wasn't a robot, he was I'm sure a caring father, and that day, when something went - for whatever reason - wrong, luck wasn't there to assist.

When we say R.I.P. we should mean it.

 

[homeforsummer]

When we say R.I.P. we should mean it.

This. It's undoubtedly terrible what happened and worse that two children also died, but there's little to be gained four years on from playing the blame game.

By all accounts McRae was a talented pilot and as a man in the top level of motorsport, had reactions, coordination and mechanical feel better than all but a handful of others in the world could match, but nobody is immune from risk and this time, taking risks resulted in paying the ultimate price.

Some risks are better judged than others, but it'd be hypocritical of anyone who has ever taken a risk themselves to criticise him too heavily for the accident.

 

[F1 fan]

I'm not surprised to be honest. I grew up in Carluke which is only a few miles (around 7) from Lanark. My father believes he saw the helicopter fly overhead towards Lanark as he was washing his car. Soon after, he heard the sirens of Ambulances, Police cars and Fire Engines. 20-30 minutes later, while listening to the radio, he heard the news of a helicopter crash. it is unusual to see a helicopter in this area so it is unlikely he saw another one.

I'm not going to get into a discussion about morals as I took more than the odd risk when I had my motorbike. I will however point out that my mother vaguely knows the father of the six year old boy who died. There was a deep sadness in the local community.

Growing up, I idolized Colin McRae at one point (along with John Cleland, who also grew up nearby). I had been trying to get started in karting and (obviously) dreamed of making it to Formula One. I had a lot of respect for the likes of McRae and Cleland, who made it despite coming from an area that is far away from anything Motorsports related.

 

[Scaff]

This. It's undoubtedly terrible what happened and worse that two children also died, but there's little to be gained four years on from playing the blame game.

By all accounts McRae was a talented pilot and as a man in the top level of motorsport, had reactions, coordination and mechanical feel better than all but a handful of others in the world could match, but nobody is immune from risk and this time, taking risks resulted in paying the ultimate price.

Some risks are better judged than others, but it'd be hypocritical of anyone who has ever taken a risk themselves to criticise him too heavily for the accident.

While I do to a degree understand what you are saying here, something else I only found out today in regard to this does cast another light on it.

Namely that McRae's pilots licence had lapsed at the time of the accident and that his rating for this type of aircraft had also lapsed as well.

Source - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-12666868


Scaff

 

[Tyger]

I thought i'd read (on the BBC site) that it could still have been due to a fault, so whilst it also appears he was flying recklessly, this wasn't definitely the cause of the crash. The posts above don't seem to mention this, only that he's apparently to "blame".

That he was apparently flying recklessly and his licence had expired means just that, not necessarily that he caused the crash.

We'll never know the definite reason. RIP Colin.

 

[homeforsummer]

While I do to a degree understand what you are saying here, something else I only found out today in regard to this does cast another light on it.

Namely that McRae's pilots licence had lapsed at the time of the accident and that his rating for this type of aircraft had also lapsed as well.

Source - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-12666868

I'd heard that also, though one source pointed out that the aviation authority has been very poor at issuing reminders for soon-to-expire licences, and McRae's crash has now prompted them to do so. There were estimates that several hundred pilots had expired licences at the time of McRae's crash, simply because they didn't realise the licences had expired.

As with any licence though I suppose the expiry doesn't automatically mean that he's incapable of flying, even if it means he wasn't legally qualified to do so.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

As with any licence though I suppose the expiry doesn't automatically mean that he's incapable of flying, even if it means he wasn't legally qualified to do so.

It depends on when the licence expired and how long it had been since the pilot had last flown.

 

[homeforsummer]

It depends on when the licence expired and how long it had been since the pilot had last flown.

Given that he owned the helicopter himself I can't expect it to have been too long since he'd last flown.

As for licence expiry, if your driver's licence was ten years out of date but you'd been driving for that whole ten years, would the lack of legality have any bearing at all on your ability to drive?

 

[Scaff]

From what I have found out his licence had expired two years before the accident and his rating for the aircraft around six months before the accident.


Scaff

 

[Hun200kmh]

Ok, he broke the law.