Accident Overview
A helicopter struck the water during a night approach, resulting in the aircraft coming to rest submerged and inverted. The sole passenger drowned, while the two crew members survived after a difficult egress.
Flight Conditions
At the time of the accident, conditions were a dark night with a 300- to 400-foot overcast ceiling and fog. The crew had just completed a Copter approach and transitioned to visual flight. The point where they went visual was over water, approximately 1 mile offshore. The only visual references available were several lights on land, about 4 miles ahead.
Altimeter Settings
The local altimeter setting was 30.02 inches of mercury. However, the captain's altimeter was set to 30.05, and the copilot's was set to 30.12. These discrepancies caused the captain's altimeter to indicate 30 feet higher than actual altitude, and the copilot's altimeter to indicate 100 feet higher than the actual altitude.
Crew Actions
The copilot, who was flying, transitioned from instrument references to an outside visual scan in preparation for landing. The captain, who was not flying, looked down while changing radios. Neither crew member was aware of a descent until the helicopter struck the water in a level attitude.
Impact and Egress
The helicopter came to rest submerged and inverted, with all windows on the left side broken. The copilot escaped through his missing window. The captain was unable to open his door and became disoriented. He exhausted the air in his emergency air bottle during the four minutes it took him to egress. The passenger drowned.