Quite a few, especially Boeing after their cover ups I agree with smug in that it is a pointless exercise other than to show off and a needless risk. If it's an airshow for example, then fine. People are going to expect the risks.
And I agree with him as well. But considering how many aircraft are in the air at any given time and how remarkably few of them crash, I’d say that helicopters and planes are a fairly safe mode of transport
I've been on them plenty, and don't expect to put myself through it again. Including those Chinooks, which are massive great things which have no business being in the air, make a thunderous racket, and have been known to fall into the North Sea. I think I'm happy in my proper element of terra firma now. I'll put up with aeroplanes to get to places, but for me, it's not a pleasure. I was on one once when those bloody masks came down. Absolutely shyting myself for about thirty seconds. Never been the same in them since!
Just to be clear, I'm not saying helicopters are particularly dangerous or that they’re continuously falling out of the sky … … my point is that there’s no need for anyone to use them as minicabs, especially over a busy crowded city centre or stadium. It was just sheer luck that this one crashed, and burst into flames, in an area where there were no people. I wonder how we’d feel if we’d been the away side and it crashed into our coach park … … I doubt we’d shrug it off as ‘Well it’s not often that happens and they’re statisically very safe’.
At a hospital in the south west we had a helicopter pad in the grounds which required an ambulance to attend a landing to transfer the patient to A&E which of course took some time but still significantly quicker than road access, especially in summer. A case was made to have a pad outside A&E when a case, possibly from a ship in the Channel, was time critical and a minute could make the difference between life and death. It's use was restricted to the air ambulance on the assessment of the on board doctor. The Health and Safety restrictions and procedures in the construction of the pad, the pre work on clearing traffic in advance of arrival were extensive and detailed. So yes they are risky manoeuvres in built up areas and I agree that their use as glorified status symbol taxis should be controlled in such areas.
They could be even safer in some instances. https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/19/business/boeings-ceo-responsible/index.html The point was that landing/taking off in a stadium full of people is an unnecessary risk. And everything has a risk. Helicopters more so than planes. Obviously it'd have to be a Harrier jump jet in a stadium
