Have any questions? Call us: 
A seasoned pilot whose 1965 Bell UH-1H “Huey” helicopter dropped out of the sky in the Snowy Mountains during a long-line lifting operation survived his second major helicopter crash with significant injuries.
Philip O’Driscoll was 45 years old in April 2018 he was hovering at low level associated with geotechnical drilling works connected to the Snowy Hydro expansion.
He held a commercial licence with low-level and sling-load endorsements and had spent decades flying in demanding environments, including firefighting.
In 2005 he had survived a serious helicopter crash in Canada, leaving him with residual vulnerabilities but also deep experience of aviation risk.
The “Huey” was a Vietnam-era military aircraft converted for heavy civilian operations and operated under a restricted Class B certificate of airworthiness.
Maintenance for the ancient machine was governed less by contemporary regulations than by legacy US military technical manuals.
Mandatory daily inspections could be carried out either by the pilot or by a licensed aircraft maintenance engineer.
Encore Aviation had been responsible for maintenance since 2016. In March 2018, weeks before the accident, foreign object debris damage was found in the engine compressor.
Its engineers carried out blend repairs to several compressor blades and signed the helicopter back into service on 1 April. No vibration test was conducted.
On 16 April 2018, O’Driscoll flew the helicopter to Tumut and met a maintenance engineer engaged by Encore to perform daily inspection and field maintenance.
The following morning O’Driscoll performed his own pre-flight inspection and signed the daily entry on the maintenance release.
Eleven lifts were completed without incident. At about 2 pm, while hovering and waiting for rigging to be prepared, O’Driscoll heard a loud mechanical bang. The helicopter yawed sharply, lost power, and the engine-out alarm sounded.
He transmitted a mayday, attempted to jettison the long line, and aimed for a forced landing in a riverbed. The helicopter struck trees, impacted the ground, and caught fire.
O’Driscoll escaped but sustained a back injury. The aircraft was destroyed.
He returned to flying within months but claimed that the crash left him with anxiety, ongoing pain, symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder and a reduced capacity to work in high-risk environments.
He asserted that his earning capacity was curtailed by both physical and psychological effects, even though he continued operating his business and later travelled overseas to acquire a replacement helicopter.
Lawsuits by O’Driscoll and his company who owned the aircraft were launched against Encore.
Expert evidence established fatigue cracking in the exhaust diffuser assembly caused loss of structural integrity, allowing the power turbine shaft to rub against the compressor assembly, leading to catastrophic failure.
O’Driscoll argued that external fatigue cracking in the exhaust diffuser should have been visible on Encore’s daily inspections in the days before the crash.
Second, he contended that the March 2018 compressor blade repairs required a post-repair vibration test, which would have revealed abnormal vibration and prevented the aircraft returning to service.
Justice Richard Cavanagh rejected that argument because – given only six blades of the compressor were repaired on that occasion – the requisite threshold mandating a vibration test has not been crossed.
Reasonable care did not require doing more than the manual prescribed merely because the risk was high.
The cracking issue was resolved differently.
The court found that fatigue cracking existed externally on the exhaust diffuser shortly before the crash and that a properly conducted engineer’s daily inspection, using a torch and mirror, should have detected it.
Although pilots could lawfully conduct daily inspections, Encore had assumed responsibility for maintenance and inspections in the field. The engineer’s failure to detect visible cracking was a breach of duty in Justice Cavanagh’s view. Had it been detected, the helicopter would have been grounded and repaired.
It was unarguable that the defect had not led directly to the engine failure and crash.
But what of the pilot signing the daily inspection?
This was irrelevant – either in respect of causation or contributory negligence – given the engineer’s inspection was expected to be more detailed and because Encore had accepted responsibility for airworthiness management.
The court awarded $430,ooo for the value of the destroyed aircraft but only $55,000 for O’Driscoll’s injuries.
That claim was marred by inconsistencies in medical records, continued flying, and failure to disclose for many years, the symptoms of which he complained to the court, to aviation authorities.
O’Driscoll v Encore Aviation Pty Ltd [2025] NSWSC 1536 Cavanagh J 17 December 2025
Categories: aircraft accident