SCOTTISH motorcycle champion Steve Hislop flew a helicopter into a cloud without the proper training and in an aircraft not designed for the purpose, a fatal accident inquiry heard yesterday.
The 41-year-old was qualified to fly in clear conditions only as he had not qualified to fly using only the cockpit instruments as pilots must do in clouds.
The reigning British Superbike champion was killed when the helicopter he was piloting crashed in remote farmland in the Borders on July 30, 2003.
The inquiry into his death is being heard at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
An air accident investigator has told the inquiry Hislop most likely lost control of the helicopter after becoming disorientated in a cloud.
A trail of wreckage from the Robinson R44 Raven 1, which Hislop had borrowed from a friend, was spread over 400 metres.
Paul Hannant, a senior inspector at the Air Accident Investigation Branch, said the single-engine R44 was not designed for cloud as it required a twin-engine aircraft.
Hislop had almost 100 helicopter flying hours' experience but was only qualified to fly "visually" rather than "by instrumentation", he said.
Mr Hannant said evidence of the helicopter's final movements indicated Hislop had gone into cloud then been forced to take emergency action when he emerged to find the hillside rising up before him.
Hislop would have had to climb sharply, leading to a loss of engine power and causing the rotor blades to slow and collide with the tail, slicing it off and sending the helicopter out of control.
RAF Chinook pilot John Rigby told the inquiry he changed his route to avoid clouds near the site of the crash. Squadron leader Rigby told the inquiry the Chinook was on an exercise from RAF Lossiemouth when it arrived in the Teviothead area 10 minutes after Hislop's helicopter crashed.
"We looked ahead and saw there was further high ground to the south of Teviothead and we realised that it was marginal whether we were going to get through to the hills."
The inquiry is expected to end today but a written determination could take weeks.
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