WASHINGTON, D.C. — A final report from the National Transportation Safety Board says the two pilots flying the helicopter that crashed into the ocean off the coast of Big Grand Cay, Bahamas, two years ago killing West Virginia native and coal entrepreneur Chris Cline and six others committed a number of pre-flight and in-flight errors.
The report concludes pilot David Jude, a West Virginia native, and co-pilot Geoff Painter, were likely under external pressure to make the July 4, 2019, flight after Cline’s daughter, Kameron, and another woman had gotten sick during Cline’s birthday party on the island that he owned.
The 20-page report details how Cline contacted Jude and asked him to fly from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to the Bahamas because of the sickness. The plan was to fly the women back to Florida for medical treatment.
The report said after Jude and Painter successfully made it to Big Grand Cay there was “limited planning and communication for the takeoff.” Neither pilot had ever flown at night before over the ocean at Big Grand Cay.
The pilots needed to pay more attention to their flight instruments after taking off with Cline and the other passengers, the report said, because they were flying “over water in dark night conditions with no visible moon, likely zero ambient illumination, and no visible horizon.”
Problems began shortly after takeoff at a few minutes before 2 a.m. The helicopter began to lose altitude and its enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS) began to go off. Jude was able to initiate a second climb and thought the altitude was 300 feet when it was really 116 feet. The report said he misunderstood the flight instruments. Painter told him the helicopter was “diving.”
The investigation concludes neither pilot was adequately monitoring the vertical speed and altitude trends and the helicopter began to lose attitude again.
Painter told Jude “this is exactly what happened” in a crash in the United Kingdom.
It’s believed somatogravic illusion began to impact Jude. That’s when–in the absence of visual references–acceleration is incorrectly perceived as a pitch in altitude and the pilot begins to nosedive even when he’s flying level. The report said Jude didn’t know how high he was above the water. The helicopter then slammed into the ocean, killing all seven on board.
Investigators said the flight instruments on the helicopter were operational and the engines indicated no evidence of mechanical failure before the crash.
The NTSB concluded the pressure of the situation had a significant impact on the decision to fly when the pilots had little experience of flying at night over the ocean.
“The urgency of the mission and the direct communication from the helicopter owner likely created external pressure on the flight crew, which can affect decision-making and create a sense of pressure to complete a flight. However, no records were found that the flight crew evaluated or planned for the impact of external pressure on their flights to and from Big Grand Cay in dark night conditions to transport ill passengers to a hospital. It is likely that they allowed the external pressure to affect their decision to conduct the flight even though neither of them had ever flown to Big Grand Cay at night,” the report said.
Cline, a giant in the energy industry known throughout the world, was 60. His daughter Kameron Cline was 22.
The crash also claimed the lives of two of Kameron’s fellow graduates and sorority sisters from Louisiana State University — Brittney Searson, 22, of Florida and Jillian Clark, 22, from Louisiana — and Kameron’s childhood friend, Delaney Wykle, 22, of Beckley, who had just graduated with a nursing degree from WVU.
Jude was 57 and Painter was 52.