DEADLY TRANSFER: The two pilots had a little more than half of the recommended time in flight stimulator training and lacked the ability to handle the emergency
Taipei Times
Date: Sep 25, 2019
By: Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
The pilots’ lack of training and turbulence contributed to the crash of a National Airborne Service Corps
The midsection of a National Airborne Service Corps UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter rests on the deck of a salvage ship off the coast of southeast Taiwan on April 12 last year.
Photo courtesy of the Aviation Safety Council
According to the report released yesterday, the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, which had been deployed to bring a patient from Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) to Taitung on Feb. 5, crashed into the sea about 81 seconds after taking off from Lanyu.
All six people aboard were killed, but four bodies were never recovered.
Debris from the helicopter was later retrieved from a depth of about 1,000m below the surface, but the cockpit and tail have never been found, the report said. [FULL STORY]