re: Three LSU Phi Mu's die in helicopter crash with billionaire Chris Cline

I'm not sure of the geography and I know there are over 100 islands in the Bahamas. I don't know the cruising speed of a AW-139 either. But it seems like it wouldn't be a very long flight - maybe 60 or 90 minutes.

FWIW, everyone worrying about how many people were onboard, that ship is capable of holding 2 crew and 15 passengers. 7 total people is nothing.

So if someone was sick why not have an MD fly over with them if it can hold 17 people?

quote:

---

I wonder if his parents called 911 or called a good friend to drive him to the hospital.

---

Not sure why you quoted my post, the question i was responding to had nothing to do with why the guy didnt call 911.. it was asking what could possibly affect a young person in their early 20s enough to need immediate medical attention, and i was pointing out that the list is literally endless.

quote:

---

quote:

---

“The night before, me and my brother-in-law, we watched the chopper come in,” McIntosh told The Guardian yesterday. “We watched it land and in about half an hour it [went] back up. “As it [went] back up, it didn’t get very high. It went up and in about five minutes it just ‘boop’. “The light just disappeared and it was a loud crash. It was a loud bang in the water.” He said, “We jumped in our boats and we went searching. This was about 2:30 a.m. and we went searching from about 2 a.m. to 4 a.m., almost 5 a.m., the next day. “Where it was so dark, we really couldn’t see anything because it was too dark so we called back to the island and they said, ‘No, no, no. The chopper is back in the states.’ So, I said ok, fine.” McIntosh said he thought that was it. But police said around 2 p.m. on Thursday, Cline’s helicopter was reported missing. Delvin Major, chief investigator at the Air Accident Investigation Department, said the helicopter had departed Grand Cay, Abaco, and was en route to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when it crashed. Search and rescue efforts began after the aircraft was reported “overdue” by authorities, according to Major. McIntosh said he then went to Big Grand Cay to break the news to Cline’s employees. Then he set out with officials to find the chopper. When officials finally located the crash site, McIntosh said he was “heartbroken”. “Everybody just was in a daze. Man, it was just tears, you know? It was just tears.” He was also present when divers pulled Cline’s body out of the water. McIntosh struggled to recount the discovery. “Mr. Cline actually…was one of the first ones that came out,” he said, choking back tears. “…Just then, a kid came out. It was four kids and they were about 19 to 21 years of age, kids in their prime. “They had just graduated from college and came home to have fun and then boom; here today and gone tomorrow. It’s life.”

---

---

If that dude ain’t from Appalachia, I ain’t breathing.

quote:

---

So if someone was sick why not have an MD fly over with them if it can hold 17 people?

---

You don’t just pick one up at Walgreens.

From what I know about a family member that owns a private Jet, if it was a true emergency I very much doubt that Cline’s own people would be the ones picking them up unless he paid them to be on call that week which very well maybe the case. Just because you have a private plane/ helicopter and pilot doesn’t mean they are on call ready to go in 30 minutes.

Also, those guys are doubtful to be un trained imo. Who knows, could be the case, but I doubt it. Training is a drop in the bucket in costs to owning a private plane with a pilot.

The idea that Cline wanted to keep this off the radar seems silly. I never heard of this guy and most didn’t, it wasn’t Soro’s Or Bezos or Trump.

I would think where they were if you had a private island, you’d likely have a number for emergency medical evac. Whether that is private or public if it’s a truly serious issue.

quote:

---

But they are also unlikely to have a lot of night IFR time over water.

---

I don’t know, honestly don’t. But if I’m a billionaire with a helicopter I’m thinking I’m using it a lot at night in Miami. All winter long it gets dark by 5. I would think those guys would be flying passengers and crew and crap to his private island from Florida pretty routinely at night.

quote:

---

If that dude ain’t from Appalachia, I ain’t breathing.

---

Pretty sure he’s a Bahamian local that works on the island for Cline.

quote:

---

I agree. But they are also unlikely to have a lot of night IFR time over water.

It don’t matter at all where you’ve flown before, that’s a brand new game.

---

When my Dad was flying Skyraiders in a Marine special weapon (nuke) squadron, he said they would practice flying very low. He said they started having some pilots crash into large lakes when flying low over water due to some spacial disorientation issue (so they increased altitude over water).

I wish he was still around so I could pick his brain about the crash (he was the first graduate of the first USMC helicopter school and flew a lot of hours in different helos - including Korea and Vietnam.