An inquest into the death in a helicopter crash of businessman Lord Ballyedmond, formerly Dr Edward Haughey, has heard that one of the pilots expressed concern about the safety of the flight moments before take-off.
In a cockpit voice recording just before the helicopter left Gillingham Hall in Norfolk in dense fog, one of the pilots said: “I don’t mind telling you I’m not [expletive] very happy about lifting out of here.”
The other pilot is heard to say "it should be okay...because you can still see the moon" but the helicopter crashed within minutes after a vertical take-off, killing Lord Ballyedmond, his foreman Declan Small, from Mayobridge, Co Down, pilot Carl Dickerson and co-pilot Lee Hoyle.
Experienced pilots
John Atkinson, a senior inspector at the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), told the inquest at Norfolk Coroner's Court in Norwich that Mr Dickerson and Mr Hoyle were experienced pilots in good flying practice. But there was no evidence that either had been trained in taking off vertically in low visibility, a highly unusual manoeuvre for civilian helicopters.
According to cockpit voice recordings, Mr Dickerson told Mr Hoyle: “All I’m going to do, take it over to the centre of the field, and then just pull the power, we’ll go vertically up.”
Threat of fog
During an earlier flight, the two pilots had discussed the worsening weather conditions and the threat of thick fog in the evening.
The inquest heard on Tuesday that Mr Dickerson had called Lord Ballyedmond’s personal assistant to say that they had to leave before 6.30pm to avoid the fog but they did not leave until 7.22 pm.
During the earlier flight, Mr Hoyle asked Mr Dickerson, apparently referring to Lord Ballyedmond, “is he aware of the weather situation?” Mr Dickerson said he has told Lord Ballyedmond’s PA.
“What I’m trying to ask you is, are you going to tell him?” Mr Hoyle said. Mr Dickerson said: “No, it’s down to them. If he asks me, I’ll tell him.”
‘Somatogravic illusion’
Another AAIB investigator, Peter Wivell, said a possible cause of the crash was "somatogravic illusion", a phenomenon in aviation where, because of low visibility, pilots perceive the aircraft as tilting further upwards than it actually is.
When he died on March 13th, 2014, Lord Ballyedmond was Northern Ireland's richest man, and chairman of the pharmaceuticals company Norbrook Laboratories.
