McRae helicopter crash 'avoidable'

The deaths of former world rallying champion Colin McRae and three others in a helicopter crash could have been avoided, a sheriff…

The deaths of former world rallying champion Colin McRae and three others in a helicopter crash could have been avoided, a sheriff in Scotland has ruled.

Mr McRae (39), his five-year-old son Johnny, the boy’s six-year-old friend Ben Porcelli and Graeme Duncan (37) died when the aircraft came down near Mr McRae’s home in Lanark on September 15th, 2007, as he flew home from a trip to see a friend.

Sheriff Nikola Stewart, who heard a fatal accident inquiry over 12 days at Lanark Sheriff Court, concluded the deaths could have been avoided if McRae had not engaged in low-level flying “when it was unnecessary and unsafe to do so”.

In her written determination issued today, the sheriff concluded: “The deaths and the accident resulting in the deaths might have been avoided had Mr McRae not flown his helicopter into the Mouse Valley.

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“Such a precaution would have been entirely reasonable. There was no necessity to enter the Mouse Valley. There were no operational or logistical reasons to enter the Mouse Valley.

“Mr McRae chose to fly the helicopter into the valley. For a private pilot such as Mr McRae, lacking the necessary training, experience or requirement to do so, embarking upon such demanding, low-level flying in such difficult terrain, was imprudent, unreasonable and contrary to the principles of good airmanship.”

The ruling states that the accident happened when, due to an “unknown occurrence”, the aircraft deviated from its intended flight path and crashed

into trees lining the side of the valley. The aircraft was in powered flight at the time of the crash, and Mr McRae had attempted to recover from that unknown incident.

These attempts, the sheriff said, were unsuccessful because of the position and speed of the helicopter within Mouse Valley and the ensuing restrictions on opportunities to land the helicopter or fly it to safety.

Such options would have been available to him had he “adhered to rules of good airmanship and desisted from flying in the valley at low height and high speed”, she said.

One of the crash victims, Mr Duncan, filmed much of the outbound and return flights on his personal camcorder and some of the footage was recovered and included in the inquiry hearings.

Ms Stewart said the footage indicated that the helicopter was being flown “imprudently” and “without due regard to the principles of good airmanship”.

Commenting, Jimmy McRae, Mr McRae’s father, said: “The past four years have been extremely difficult for all the families concerned and we hope that now we can move forward. We still believe we will never know what caused the crash, but we were never in any doubt as to Colin’s prowess as a fine pilot.

PA