Helicopter Crash Research Articles

Iran's Neighborhood Policy: Parameters, Objectives, and Obstacles

AbstractIn April 2024, Iran launched its first‐ever military strikes on Israeli soil. While the United States and its allies see Tehran as potentially stoking the Gaza war and spreading the conflict across the region, the Islamic Republic has actually drawn its neighbors closer and enjoys friendlier relations with them today than at nearly any point in its 45‐year history. This rapprochement had been pursued informally by successive Iranian administrations since the late 1980s. However, it was formally adopted as the “good‐neighbor policy” by President Ebrahim Raisi, who served from 2021 until his death in a May 2024 helicopter crash. Raisi's successor, Masoud Pezeshkian, has both the desire to continue the policy and a favorable regional environment within which to do so. Despite serious challenges, Iran has improved engagement with longtime rivals like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE. Even cross‐border clashes with the Taliban in Afghanistan have been downplayed in favor of dialogue. Neighborly policies are impermanent. A number of structural and political obstacles could change Iran's calculations, but the approach is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

Analysis of injuries in aircraft accident victims in 2002–2022 based on the resources of the Jagiellonian University Department of Forensic Medicine in Kraków = Analiza obrażeń ofiar katastrof lotniczych w latach 2002–2022 na podstawie danych pochodzących z materiałów Zakładu Medycyny Sądowej Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego w Krakowie

Aim: The study aimed to analyse the most common injuries of victims of aviation accidents and compare it with the most recent literature. Methods and materials: Retrospective analysis of autopsy protocols of aircraft crash victims from the Forensic Medicine Department from years 2002–2022. The case selection has been made by two independent researchers. After applying the exclusion criteria 27 cases were obtained. Further searched for features that the bodies of victims had in common. There were analysed sex, age, circumstances of the incident, injuries, presence of psychoactive substances (alcohol, drugs), and blood concentration of carboxyhemoglobin. Results: Among 27 cases we found 19 airplane crashes, 4 glider accidents, 3 motor glider accidents, and one helicopter crash. The 1 case had no information about the type of aircraft. The injuries that emerged in each of the victims were typical results of direct impact forces. The most common were rupture of the lungs 63.0 % (n = 17/27), heart 55.6% (n = 15/27), liver 51.9% (n = 14/27), aorta 40.7% (n = 11/27) and spleen 29.6% (n = 8/27). Common bone traumas included fractures of the ribs 77.8% (n = 21/27) upper limbs 77.8% (n = 21/27), skull 74.1% (n = 20/27), pelvis 59.3% (n = 16/27) and spine 51.9% (n = 14/27). Injuries of the cervical spine occurred in victims who violently tilted their heads back. Conclusions: In most cases, the immediate cause of death was extensive multi-organ injuries, followed by thermal burns or brain injuries. In almost half of the victims, the presence of carboxyhemoglobin in the blood indicates that they were alive during the crashes. Knowledge of injury patterns can improve aviation safety and guide in reconstructing the mechanisms and sequences of the accidents.

Risk assessment of man‐machine systems under safety‐critical multitasking situations

AbstractMultitasking is increasingly common in highly complex and safety‐critical systems, especially under abnormal situations. Mental overload (MOL) may occur and result in forgetting/mistaking tasks uncertainly. Such probabilistic errors could have catastrophic consequences and contribute greatly to the multitasking risk of man‐machine systems. In this paper, to better identify the risks of safety‐critical multitasking situations, MOL mechanism is investigated and a risk analysis method considering MOL is proposed. MOL occurs when the demand for resources estimated by Multiple Resources Model exceeds an operator's ability. Then, the operator's performance degrades, and s/he tends to mistake or abandon parts of tasks. Based on the MOL mechanism, a MOL‐performance dependency (MOL‐PDEP) gate is proposed to incorporate MOL into risk analysis. Its inputs are concurrent tasks, and it triggers the related hazardous human behavior events with certain probabilities if MOL occurs. Through this gate, the dependence among these events and their nondeterministic cause relationships to MOL are added to traditional fault tree (FT), which presents a challenge issue to FT analysis. An implicit method is proposed to analyze the FT with MOL‐PDEP gate and calculate the accident probability. A case study on a helicopter crash accident demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.

In Memoriam

<fig orientation="portrait" position="float" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <graphic orientation="portrait" position="float" xlink:href="warre-3261082.tif"/> </fig> This past year, we tragically lost a brilliant colleague, a devoted researcher, and a good friend, Dr. Kevin Warren. Kevin was taken from us in his 52nd year by the infamous “Huey” helicopter crash in Logan, WV, USA, on June 22, 2022. He left behind his wife, Tessa Atkins Warren, and two young sons Rafe, 13, and Cael, 12.

Mental Overload Assessment Method Considering the Effects of Performance Shaping Factors

The assessment of mental overload is essential as mental overload has been proved to be a critical cause of many accidents. Mental overload is affected by various performance shaping factors (PSFs), and harsh PSFs will either increase the task demand or decrease the overload threshold, which is rarely considered in the current mental overload assessment method. This research proposes a VACP-based mental overload assessment model which considers the effects of PSFs. In the VACP model, mental overload can be identified when the sum of the task demand values of every unit task is greater than the given threshold. In human reliability analysis, PSFs are mainly used as weighting factors to modify basic human error probability. In our research, by virtue of the quantitative relationship between human error and mental workload, the weighting factors of PSFs are converted to modify the task demand values and threshold for VACP activities. Furthermore, Bayesian Network (BN) is used to model the influence of PSFs and to calculate the probability of mental overload. The proposed method is applied to an accident involving a helicopter crash that occurred in Maryland, and the results show that, in comparison with the VACP method, the proposed method can more effectively identify the state of mental overload and provide a more rational explanation of the process of the accident.

The design of a new type coaxial multilayer rotor helicopter vehicle

Today’s small rotor helicopter vehicles mostly use electric motors and batteries as power sources. Most helicopter power configurations are either front powered or rear powered, causing the center of the helicopter to be offset. This kind of offset should be overcome by structural compensation or by adjusting the angle of attack of the blades, but some lift of the angle of attack will be sacrifice at the same time. This paper proposes a new type of electric helicopter powertrain design. The advantage of new type helicopter design is setting the centre of gravity at the centre position of helicopter. The main shaft of the helicopter through the power transmission method of the electric motor built into the internal gear of the star gear, which improves the design of the center offset of the helicopter. That is improved the flight stability of the helicopter. At the same time, in terms of power transmission, the motor power consumed by the primary gear power of the star gear, while the traditional helicopter power transmission method has three or four gear power losses. The new concept of electric motor with star gear structure proposed in this paper can effectively reduce the transmission power loss of the gear. In addition, the distributed power control system proposed in this paper also reduces the possibility of helicopter crash due to motor failure.

Design method for expandable tubular energy absorber in crashworthy seat of civilian helicopter

The working load and stroke of energy absorption are two key performance parameters for energy absorber in designing crashworthy seat. A design method for expandable tubular energy absorber (ETEA) was proposed, which specifically involves the design methods of performance and structural parameters of ETEA. Firstly, the working load of ETEA was determined through establishing its relationship with the lumbar load of occupant from the perspective of biomechanics. Secondly, the stroke of energy absorption of ETEA was derived based on the mathematical model of helicopter crash. Thirdly, the relationship between the working load and the structural parameters of ETEA was determined based on the principal stress method, and the structural parameters of ETEA was obtained through clarifying the determined design parameters. Finally, the design method proposed was implemented by taking a helicopter seat as an example, and the expanding deformation and loading process of ETEA were investigated through numerical simulation and experiment. The results show that the magnitudes of working load in numerical simulation, experiment and design method are very close, demonstrating that the design method proposed is feasible and effective, and could be provided as theoretical guidance for the design of crashworthy seat of civilian helicopter.

Official truth, applied deconstruction and post-inquiry sensemaking in the Mull of Kintyre helicopter crash

On 2 June 1994, an RAF Chinook helicopter crashed into the Mull of Kintyre, Scotland, killing all crew members and intelligence personnel on board. In this article, we analyse the 17-year campaign to set aside the finding of gross negligence against the two pilots. Existing literature has tended to focus on sensemaking during the inquiries that typically follow an accident, crisis, or disaster. However, we have a more limited understanding of the post-inquiry sensemaking occurring after an inquiry has published its findings. Drawing insights from the sociology of science and sociology of knowledge, we conceptualise post-inquiry sensemaking as three phases involving a ‘black box’ being constructed and closed, re-opened and overturned. We propose the concept of ‘applied deconstruction’ to make sense of the latter two phases. We identify the components of the ‘engine of applied deconstruction’, namely: animated actors who seek to ‘open the black box’; the building of a coalition that spans institutional sites of power; activities of discrediting the official version and crediting alternative versions; and activities of ‘lamination’ that build successive ‘layers’ of doubt. We conclude by discussing the implications arising from our case for advancing the understanding of post-inquiry sensemaking.

Navigating Neurological Recovery with NeuroAiD in Severe Spinal Cord Injury: A Noteworthy Novelty?

Background and aim: NeuroAiD is a Chinese medicinal supplement containing nine herbal ingredients. Besides neuroprotection, NeuroAiD also promotes neuroregeneration. These have been extensively investigated both in vivo and in vitro. It has gained favour, especially amongst stroke and traumatic brain injury populations, to facilitate neuro recovery. To our knowledge, the SATURN study by Kumar et al. is the only study that has shifted the focus of NeuroAiD usage to the spinal cord injury (SCI) population. We present a case of complete tetraplegia who regained some neurological recovery following NeuroAiD supplementation. Methods: A 34-year-old police officer was involved in a helicopter crash in February 2020. He sustained a C6 vertebra burst fracture with severe spinal canal stenosis, C5 and C7 vertebrae fracture, and extensive cord oedema from C4 till T1, resulting in C4 AIS A Tetraplegia. Surgical fixation was performed on day 3. Upon admission to the rehabilitation ward at the end of March 2020, the best sensory level was C4, best motor C5, and total motor score 12. He regained some recovery throughout the stay, although he remained as C4 AIS A until discharged in April 2020. He started taking 2 capsules of NeuroAiD three times daily in May 2020 for six months. We followed him up until 1-year post-event to monitor his response. Results: The best sensory level improved to C5 at six months and C6 at 1-year, whilst the best motor level improved to C6 at six months and 1-year. The total motor score increased to 17 at six months and subsequently 22 at 1-year post-event. Overall, the neurological level of injury improved from C4 at three months to C5 at six months and C6 at 1-year post-event. AIS classification, however, remained A. Conclusion: The promising role of NeuroAiD in promoting neuro recovery in SCI is noteworthy for further exploration and investigation.

Helicopter Crashes in the Deployed Combat Setting: The Department of Defense Trauma Registry Experience.

Military helicopter mishaps frequently lead to multiple casualty events with complex injury patterns. Data specific to this mechanism of injury in the deployed setting are limited. We describe injury patterns associated with helicopter crashes. This is a secondary analysis of a Department of Defense Trauma Registry (DODTR) dataset from 2007 to 2020 seeking to describe prehospital care within all theaters in the registry. We searched within the dataset for casualties injured by helicopter crash. A serious injury was defined by an abbreviated injury scale of =3 by body region. We identified 120 casualties injured by helicopter crash within the dataset. Most were Army (64%), the median age was 30 (interquartile range [IQR] 26-35), and most were male (98%), enlisted service members made up the largest cohort (47%), with most injuries occurring during Operation Enduring Freedom (69%). Only 2 were classified as battle injuries. The median injury severity score was 9 (IQR 4-22). Serious injuries by body region are the following: thorax (27%), head/neck (17%), extremities (17%), abdomen (11%), facial (3%), and skin/superficial (1%). The most common prehospital interventions focused on hypothermia prevention/management (62%) and cervical spine stabilization (32%). Most patients survived to hospital discharge (98%). Serious injuries to the thorax were most common. Survival was high, although better data capture systems are needed to study deaths that occur prehospital that do not reach military treatment facilities with surgical care to optimize planning and outcomes. The high proportion of nonbattle injuries highlights the risks associated with helicopters in general.

Redemption vs. #MeToo: How Journalists Addressed Kobe Bryant’s Rape Case in Crafting His Memory

ABSTRACT This paper examines how journalists addressed Kobe Bryant’s 2003 rape case as they constructed the basketball star’s memory through coverage of his death. Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26, 2020, was accused of raping a hotel clerk in Colorado; charges were dropped when the woman refused to testify, but the parties reached a civil settlement. This textual analysis examines 488 news stories about Bryant’s death, content produced by 18 U.S. news organizations (12 newspapers, two magazines, three online-only publications and a cable broadcast outlet) between Jan. 26 and Oct. 31, 2020. It finds that coverage created a field of discourse that mainly celebrated Bryant for his athletic greatness, as a family man, cultural icon and supporter of women’s basketball. The paper argues that, despite the influence of social media and the #MeToo movement, journalists continue to oversimplify and cleanse the narratives of famous men with problematic pasts. The paper calls on journalists to draw from feminist theory and utilize triangulated reporting methods to incorporate marginalized viewpoints when memorializing famous men with problematic pasts.

Death of a Celebrity: Kobe Bryant and Post-Millennial Sensitivities

On Sunday, January 26, 2020, Kobe Bryant – a retired star of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball franchise – died suddenly and tragically in a helicopter crash. Following his death, Bryant was instantaneously mourned and celebrated as a basketball legend, an inspiration, a role model, a family man, and a Renaissance man; he was secularly and medially canonized. This study analyzes the secular canonization process and aims at extrapolating the post-Millennial element of the narratives of the tributes to Bryant. The article looks into how the reaction to the death of Bryant, who, although a Millennial himself, seemed to embody the post-Millennial image of post-Millennials (Generation Z) i.e., competitive, spontaneous, adventuresome, and curious, reflects the self-image of post-Millennials i.e., loyal, compassionate, thoughtful, open-minded, responsible, and determined.

A fault tree-based approach for aviation risk analysis considering mental workload overload

Many lives and aircrafts have been lost due to human errors associated with mental workload overload (MWLOL). Human errors are successfully considered in existing Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) methods. However, MWLOL is considered through Performance Shaping Factors indirectly and its information is hidden in FT construction, which is not conducive to analyze the root causes of human errors and risks. To overcome this difficulty, we develop a risk analysis method where Multiple Resources Model (MRM) is incorporated into FTA methods. MRM analyzes mental workload by estimating the resources used during performing concurrent tasks, probably including abnormal situation handling tasks introduced by basic events in FT. Such basic events may cause MWLOL and then trigger corresponding human error events. A MWLOL gate is proposed to describe MWLOL explicitly and add these new relationships to traditional FT. This new method extends previous FTA methods and provides a more in-depth risk analysis. An accident, a helicopter crash in Maryland, is analyzed by the proposed method.

Medical Support of the Sinai Multinational Force and Observers: An Update, 2020.

ABSTRACTThe Multinational Force and Observers in Sinai is a 13-nation international peacekeeping organization with the mission to implement the security provisions of the 1979 Egyptian–Israeli Treaty of Peace and continues today after approximately four decades. Despite not having significant changes to its core mission of force health protection, the medical team has recently evolved to face several challenges, with a coronavirus pandemic and a fatal helicopter crash. This article describes the medical challenges and experiences of the medical team from August 2019 to December 2020, highlighting changes from previous years. This article also updates three previous articles on the subject published in Military Medicine in 1983, 1991, and 2003.

“That is Terrible News!”: Media Framing of Mamba Mentality Within Contemporary U.S. Racial and Gender Politics

On January 26, 2020, former Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant passed away suddenly in a helicopter crash. Drawing on theoretical frameworks of racial and gender politics in the U.S. context, and media framing, we conducted a textual analysis of mainstream news media’s framing of “Mamba Mentality” in the immediate aftermath of Bryant’s death. Across the 119 articles retrieved for analysis, we found Mamba Mentality consistently framed in four ways: a performance standard, both mental and physical; a symbol for overcoming adversity; a commodity; and a legacy/ethos. While mainstream media was complicit in absolving Bryant of his 2003 sexual assault allegation, the allegation was folded into his complex celebrity identity, which ultimately legitimized his Mamba Mentality persona as strong, tough, and able to overcome any obstacle that stood in the way—regardless of the cost. Our findings implicate how a celebrity athlete’s life is valued by contemporary media, and how media portrayals represent historical underpinnings of identity politics and oppressive practices, in line with structural and systemic violence in American society.

Prolonged Stabilization During a Mass Casualty Incident at Sea in the Era of Distributed Maritime Operations.

In August 2017, the USS Bataan received a mass casualty incident (MCI) of 6 foreign special forces operators after a helicopter crash. All 6 patients were medically evacuated successfully to the USS Bataan, and all patients survived and were successfully returned to their allied country. Four of the patients received whole blood with 2 receiving over 10 units of blood or massive transfusions. One patient required 44units of blood, and at 1 point in his resuscitation, he received 12units of whole blood every 30minutes. Due to administrative factors outside of the ship's control, these 6 patients had prolonged stabilization during the MCI. This factor differentiates this MCI on the USS Bataan from previous cases. Internal medicine trained physicians with their expertise in inpatient care, postsurgical management, and critical care were instrumental in sustaining these casualties in this prolonged stabilization environment. In the era of distributed maritime operations, where casualty-receiving ships will experience more geographic and resource isolation, there is a potential for the need for prolonged stabilization above the 6 to 12-hour window typical of role II platforms. The known increase in cardiac and pulmonary morbidity and mortality with medical evacuation delay highlights the importance of internal medicine physicians in the role II setting. It is critical that we emphasize the inpatient and critical care principles of these patients in the prolonged field care environment.

Promising pipelines and hydrocarbon nationalism: the sociality of unbuilt infrastructure in indigenous Siberia

Promising pipelines and hydrocarbon nationalism: the sociality of unbuilt infrastructure in indigenous Siberia

Crashworthy design and energy absorption mechanisms for helicopter structures: A systematic literature review

Helicopters are versatile aircraft that can perform numerous missions such as ground surveillance, rescue missions, air ambulance, fire-fighting etc. However, helicopter crashes sometimes occur owing to technical failures or human errors. Accordingly, the crashworthy design of helicopters has always remained a top priority to prevent catastrophic structural failure and significant casualties. The crashworthy performance of helicopters can be immensely improved with well-designed energy absorption materials or structures. This paper presents a systematic literature review on crashworthy design and energy absorption mechanisms for helicopter structures. Firstly, the historical development of aircraft crashworthiness investigation at various periods over the past few decades is presented. Then, some typical energy absorbing components such as rings, tubes, honeycombs, corrugated structures and emerging energy absorbers are introduced to act as the major structural elements for the crashworthy design of helicopters. After that, an emphasis is placed on the dynamic behavior and energy absorption of typical helicopter structures such as the landing gear, subfloor, full-scale airframe, helicopter crashworthy seats, fuel tank and helicopter blade. In addition, representative helicopter crash scenarios such as bird strike, water impact and the impact response and injury of the occupants are described. Finally, the crashworthy evaluation criteria of helicopter structures are summarized in this paper. This article is intended as a comprehensive literature review of crashworthy design and impact protection of helicopter structures.

In Case You Haven't Heard…

Basketball legend Kobe Bryant, who died Jan. 26 in a helicopter crash at age 41, had a legacy that also included advocacy and mentorship off the court, Business Insider reported Jan. 27. Bryant tackled mental health issues, and the rising rates of anxiety, spearheading a children's podcast called “The Punies” to share important life lessons like how to manage anger and fear of not fitting in, how to work with other people on a team and how to learn from failure. He also worked with Why We Rise, a campaign from the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, on the importance of being open about mental health and reducing the stigma of depression, anxiety and other issues. He was upfront about the importance of sharing experiences and moving beyond the stigma of viewing mental health struggles as “weakness.” “Ignoring it is the worst thing we can do, because then it festers,” he said in a video collaboration with Why We Rise.

Critical incident stress debriefing for frontline military rescuers in a helicopter crash disaster in Taiwan: A preliminary report

Objective: With the goal of optimizing the outcome of frontline rescuers from psychiatric morbidities, especially posttraumatic stress disorder, preventive interventions is necessary. But the effectiveness and timing of the group debriefing programs remain controversial. In this study, we intended to share the process of a debriefing group, consisting of several therapeutic elements and showing the benefits and effectiveness of each therapeutic element. Methods: A helicopter crash tragedy took place on January 2, 2020, in Taiwan. We recruited 71 frontline military rescuers for providing a group debriefing program, a semi-structured critical incident stressing debriefing (CISD). After the program was finished, all participants filled out their demographic data and a copy of an anonymous questionnaire, the Sharing Support Group for Crisis Intervention Questionnaire for the attendant's self-perceived benefits with 11 elements. Comparing to their perceived therapeutic elements and demographic information, we later discussed the factors associated with the therapeutic effectiveness of this program. Results: The male dominant participants perceived the benefits of all therapeutic elements with no significant differences between gender. Those with service-year < 4 years showed significantly higher self-perceived benefits from this program (p < 0.05). The sergeant rank showed significantly lesser self-perceived benefits from the program, for example, emotion catharsis (Q4, p < 0.05), reviewing of what the group members experienced (Q5, p < 0.01), and coping skills extension (Q8, p < 0.05). Conclusion: This study revealed that the sociodemographic factors, rescuers' ranks and years of service but no gender, play rôles in the effectiveness of the group debriefing programs for the frontline military rescuers. We hope that further understanding can improve the therapeutic effectiveness of debriefing management in the future.