Butane could be the villian
Butane gas and aircraft do not mix. I can recall doing a Unit Emplaning Officers’ course whilst in-service and being told the story of a bic lighter sitting on the dash of a Hercules long enough to heat up, explode and cause sufficient damage to bring down the aircraft. I also remember being in a Herc one day when the Loadie discovered a butane bottle in someone’s kit. With drama worthy of a career in Hollwood he raised the rear gate and threw the offending item out at 30,000 feet.
Thinking about that now, I wonder where it landed? Hope we were over desert or somewhere similar……still.
Whatever, this article from the SMH raises the issue again. Butane could be the villian with the Sea King choper crash in Nias, Indonesia last year.
TEN canisters of highly flammable liquid butane gas found in the wreckage of a Sea King helicopter that crashed on the Indonesian island of Nias last year could have been taken on board by an aid worker, an inquiry into the accident has heard.Counsel assisting the inquiry, Lieutenant Stephen Harper and Lieutenant Matthew Vesper, yesterday began investigating the role of an Australian aid worker, Frank Tyler, who was picked up on Nias with his interpreter on the morning of the accident. Mr Tyler wanted the Sea King’s assistance to get to Teluk Dalam, where more than 100 casualties had been reported. A number of boxes which Mr Tyler wanted transported were also loaded onto the Sea King. But instead of flying direct to Teluk Dalam, the helicopter flew back to the Kanimbla.
There the boxes were unloaded and stored in a hangar on the ship for 2½ hours before being placed back on the Sea King later that day for the flight to Teluk Dalam. It was on that flight that the crash occurred. In between, there had been a crew change on the Sea King, known as Shark 02.Who signed off on the load list for the second flight, I wonder? Not good. UPDATE: Just to clarify my position; I’m not suggesting the butane had anything to do with the crash but could well have caused loss of life subsequent to the impact and resultant fuel ignition.
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Bad as it is, on evidence given to the inquiry to date I’m afraid it’s the navy’s maintenance practices which are most likely to have caused the crash. And as you know, there have been similar maintenance irregularities since, which is just about unforgivable.
The butane is bad and may have killed some survivors of the crash, but that problem is easily fixed. The other one is a real worry.
I’m a bit hazy on this stuff, but didn’t the ban on butane lighters and containers only apply to fixed wing aircraft where pressure differentials at altitude could cause the containers to leak or burst?
PQ, Yeah, I can’t recall any problems with RW flights and it is the pressure differentials that matter but butane obviously has an impact when you crash. Something I never thought about before – still, so does the AVTUR.
`A number of boxes which Mr Tyler wanted transported
Who signed off on the load list for the second flight, I wonder?’
Begs the question: is it problematic when, say, RAAF are required to carry civilians on `peacekeeping and aid’ trips? As in, are they restricted in requiring inspection of cargo and luggage of civilians, Contrast civilian airlines, which do inspect luggage and reject luggage which is not safe for air-transport.
Is it even more problemtic, without wishing to impugn Mr. Tyler, given the reputation of `aid workers’ as rather worse than arrogant. The account of a U.S. navy officer of the conduct U.N. `aid workers’, who interfered in the naval relief of Ache post tsunami, and their contemptuous conduct on board the aircraft carrier summed things up.Telling was, they tied up helicopters being used to ferry supplies as they took joy flights – one is not implying so against Tyler.
There seems to be a real problem, partuclarly when armed services are required to deal with holy joes.
Anyway, after that horrible crash, the forces are, presumably, reviewing treatment of also civilians and their cargo they are required to carry. Stung once, you don’t let it happen again if you can help it.