The co-pilot of the Customs Surveillance Service helicopter EC-JQD who suffered an accident during a pursuit of drug traffickers in July 2021 in the waters of the Strait of Gibraltar has asked the San Roque court that is following the case to archive the proceedings against him and, consequently, to lift his status as an investigated party (previously called an indictment) in an alleged crime of negligence, as per a publication by EuropaSur.
In that accident, Customs observer José Luis Domínguez Iborra, who was occupying the back seat of the aircraft, drowned when the helicopter plunged into the sea. The aircraft was operating Night VFR rules. The investigation report makes no mention of Night Vision Imaging Systems (NVIS) googles being used.
Both the co-pilot (J.G.N.) and the pilot-commander (A.O.S.), survivors of the accident, are currently under investigation in the complex investigation procedure that tries to elucidate the causes and responsibilities of the accident.
When the accident with one fatality occurred, both belonged to the staff of the Eliance company, operator of the SVA air fleet.
José Luis Domínguez Iborra, an official of the Customs Surveillance Service of Algeciras, died in the early hours of Sunday morning after the helicopter in which he was riding crashed into the sea during a chase.
The events occurred while the aircraft, which is normally manned by a pilot, a co-pilot and an aerial observer, was supporting an Águila IV patrol boat in a pursuit of a speedboat related to drug trafficking, according to the Ministry of the Interior on its Twitter account, about 30 miles east of Sotogrande, in the waters of the Strait of Gibraltar.
The helicopter that crashed is of the AS365 Dauphin model, operated by the Eliance company, in charge of operating the Tax Agency's fleet. The deceased, 61 years old and with a career of 40 years in Customs Surveillance.
The two pilots managed to get out, took the observer out of the helicopter and managed to revive him, but it is believed that when he reached the ground he went into respiratory arrest. A mobile ICU tried to revive him for an hour, without success, and he died.
The crew members were able to stay afloat thanks to the floats that the helicopter has incorporated in case of falling into the sea. A Civil Guard patrol boat and a Maritime Rescue boat were deployed in the area of the fatal accident.
The co-pilot went from status "witness" to "investigated" as a result of the statement of the commander-pilot that was made in November 2022.
The pilot (who at that time was already under investigation in the case) accused his partner and the deceased of what happened, causing the investigating judge to modify that same day the status of J.G.N. in the procedure - in turn giving him greater procedural guarantees, as he had the obligation to attend assisted by a lawyer.
The co-pilot had appeared in the case as a "private prosecutor" because he considered himself the "victim" of an alleged "crime against safety" at work.
Now, after his statement, his legal representatives consider that he should be removed from the proceedings and the proceedings against him should be archived.
"He is clearly a worker who could have been harmed by the negligent action in the descent and pursuit of the helicopter commander and the absence of any procedure or instruction established by Elliance to avoid the risk in these operations," reads the document registered this week before the San Roque court.
To support this request, the co-pilot's lawyers point out that the report of the CIAIC (Commission for the Investigation of Civil Aviation Accidents and Incidents) established as the cause of the accident "the sudden maneuver at low altitude, without there being an operations manual or instructions for this type of operation" and that the pilot-commander acknowledged in court that the co-pilot was "reading" the altitude to him, in addition to the helicopter's altimeter.
There was a lot of humidity and scattered banks of fog, according to a statement from the PF.
When the Customs Agent located the two vessels, using the FLIR surveillance system, PF guided the crew with more precision until they positioned themselves close to them.
When positioned to the left of the SVA patrol boat they descended “very rapidly” from an altitude of 500 ft to below 100 ft.
As they descended below 200 ft the flight crew turned the landing lights on.
The illumination resulted in glare from the humidity in the air which mean the flight crew lost sight of the vessels and the surface.
Shortly after the crew “felt a jolt” as the tail contacted the sea. Wind speed was c30 knots, wave height c 1 m and sea temperature was 22°.
According to the co-pilot's lawyers, the commander was untruthful when he stated that his client did not call for the speed of descent, a matter that appears in a table of the CIAIC report.
"It can be seen that he was descending at high speed, when he braked suddenly every time he reached a speed outside the recommended speed, the co-pilot (J.G.N.) informing him of this extreme, the commander being fully aware, at all times, of the excessive speed of descent that he was adopting at each moment, since otherwise, he would not have slowed down", the brief highlights.
In the safety investigation by the Spanish the Civil Aviation Accident and Incident Investigation Commission (CIAIAC), issued in Spanish in December 2022, the investigators explain that the helicopter left its base at Algeciras, Cadiz at 01:20 for a routine patrol.
The investigation has concluded that the cause of the accident was carrying out a sudden manoeuvre at low altitude and with reduced visibility, not contemplated in the Operations Manual.
In modern day aviation, Crew Resource Management (CRM) is vital for the effective use of all available resources for flight crew personnel to assure a safe and efficient operation, reducing error, avoiding stress and increasing efficiency.
As aviation evolved complex systems in the cockpit increasing workload, CRM was developed as a response to new insights into the causes of aircraft accidents which followed from the introduction of flight data recorders (FDRs) and cockpit voice recorders (CVRs) into modern jet aircraft.
Pictures / SVA Airbus AS365N3 EC-JDQ (Credit: CIAIAC)
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