Harsh!

theres a lot of crashes lately with helicopters like are they unsafe or does anyone think its now just a rich mans toy and they aint got enough experience in flying one.

I don't think helicopter crashes are that uncommon, its just when someone famous dies in one people notice them more.

Strange coincidence that Steve Hislop died in a helicopter crash, in Scotland, and was big on the motor racing scene too. I think that's the last sportsman death via helicopter before this

The collision detection on that game is pants.

The reason why the rich & famous die often in helicopters is or so I am told, they only take 40hrs of lessons and then think they know it all, the average cost of flying a tiny helicopter is well over 1,000 quid an hour and a qualified engineer to look after one can easily earn 55k or more a year.

The helicopters I worked on got hammered day & night 5 days a week and in my 15 tears I know of only 4 crashes, 1 fatal and all of them had the same cause pilot error.

but you can fly them small planes with 40 hours experience then a test, you can learn at durham-tees valley.

Matthew Harding, the Chelsea bloke died in a helicopter crash as well, on the way back from a football match. I've only been in one once and it's a fookin' strange experience.

wasnt frankie detori involved in a holicopter crash and survived, it maybe another jocky though

I've been in a chopper twice (both times in the States), they are indeed rather unique machines.
I watched a documentary on a phenomenon which affects helicopters known as "down draught". It is almost impossible to get the machine out of trouble should this occur, even the most experienced pilots can't overcome the laws of physics.
Quite scary really, the knack is avoiding the situation if at all possible, but the footage shown of a chopper hitting the ground quickly at an airshow was a bit of a shock.

Maybe MadJohn can tell us the average number of minutes between crashes.

One of my regular jobs is translating articles from Helicopter News into English, so I do know a bit about them.
It takes about ten years for a helicopter to go through all the various safety tests and approvals before it's allowed to go on the market. Every crash undergoes just as much scrutiny as a Jumbo Jet accident would. And they don't give pilot's licences to just any old fookah.