http://www.zippyvideos.com/6892116423932506/cougarcrash/

If so... sheeeeeeeeat!

Yep - Ye ole loss of tail rotor drive or pitch control. If that had happened when he had some forward airspeed and some altitude, that should have been an easy run-on landing and walk away. Loosing T/R control on a landing is the worst of all places for it. He’s pulling power into the main rotor system to slow down and flair, so the T/R has to counter for the most main rotor torque. Loose the T/R, and around ya go.
Why he didn’t drop the collective (power/pitch to the main rotor system) when he touched the mains down is beyond me. Why on earth did he pick it back up?! In a ship that stout, he could have just dropped it from 10’ before it really got to spinning and been better off.
Judging from the approach and touchdown speed he may have known he had a T/R issue (in which case he should have pulled the troops in from the doors). Once he felt the mains hit he might have been pulling power/collective thinking he could slow it down. Too much power, and up you go again.
When training, I like to do a full power pull w/o any pedal just to show folks how fast things get to spinning. We keep it off the ground though, of course.

I feel for that one soldier that fell out, that’s for sure.

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1980 300D - Veggie Burner !

Here’s a couple more.
The navy ship lost the T/R on landing.
The News9 guys had plenty of time to go through all the bad words and even make up some new ones. Awesome that they all walked.

http://www.wimp.com/helicoptercrash/

http://www.capitalnews9.com/shared/video/player.asp?destlist=34785

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1980 300D - Veggie Burner !

Maybe he got lucky and didn't get hit by the propeller

In the second clip, whoever was in that helicopter must have been screaming their a$$ off. I would have...

I don’t think the rotor got him, but it sure looks like that gear outrigger did. Ouch.

As a passenger, screaming just pisses off the pilot. You just close your eyes and hold on. The pilot does all he can to find the safest spot to drop it. Or just any spot to drop you, if you keep screaming.

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1980 300D - Veggie Burner !

I recall that crash of the News 4 helicopter here in NYC. I still recall how lucky those fellows were to walk away from that crash. The chances of it setting down on a building and not disintegrating on impact have to be about 1 in a million.

The Eurocopter/Ecureuil AS350 is a pretty solid ship. Not the most pilot friendly fling-wing to fly though. I’m not into their ergonomics or engine management controls at all.
But then - had that been a Bell 206, I don’t think they’d be walking away from it either.

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1980 300D - Veggie Burner !

I heard an interwiew with a helicopter pilot in Iraq a couple years ago. He was saying the things are a handful to handle, most all the time. I can imagine. A lot going on there. I imagine the big advantage of the twin rotor models would be to avoid that kind of loss of control, though you don't see too many of them, except the older models.

I remember years ago seeing picture of one that had the two rotors next to each other, up front, each at about an 80 or 85 degree angle to the ground, mirror image of course, just sychronized to weave in and out of each other.

Seems like a good way to go but there's a hell of a lot I don't know about the subject.

I saw that one guy that got ejected in the first video getting up and running but I couldn't tell if he got hit or not. Whoa, hairy stuff.

Remember that bad accident years ago -- some chopper landed on a skyscraper rooftop, NYC I believe -- one of the legs broke; the rotors hit the rooftop, broke off and decaptiated some folks, then the body slipped over the edge with the rotor stubs smashing windows on the way down. Whew...

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

When I watched the first helicopter video, it almost looked as if the pilot was trying to replicate a popular dance move with his helicopter!

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+AMDG+
2005 W203
Running as fast as I can to stay behind!!

Oops. Can you say: "Pilot Panic".
Seems to me that when most pilots loose their "control assist system", his/her first reaction is to go full input on the controls to see what's going on.
Not a good idea. Especially in a hover. This guy was so busy trying to figure it out he forgot one very important thing. FLY THE AIRCRAFT.

That’s not going to look good on the ol' resume. The mechanic gets a nice black mark from it too.

Here’s the NTSB reports on that news chopper crash. The second link is the “nut shell” report.

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?id=NYC04FA117&rpt=fa

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20040512X00594&key=1

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1980 300D - Veggie Burner !

How's that play out? Is the community small enough that he won't be able to hide the accident?

Will it seriously jeapordize his capability for future employment?

Yes the community is that small. Especially with the news organizations.

I never hire a pilot without pulling an FAA/NTSB incident report on their certificate(s). Also a pretty serious look into their logs. Jennifer, one of (if not) the best stick-pigs I have, is really good at reading logs and finding where/if someone has fudged them. She can certainly embarrass a potential hire, that’s for sure. She sits in on most of the chopper pilot interviews. Many of the older (she’s 27, cute, blonde, petite, boobs, [not watching this post right now... ]) high time pilots interviewing can’t take that kind of shot to the ego, and it shows. Not a good thing around here. So: “Don’t call us….”

This guy would have that crash brought up in the interview for sure. As for how much it will “jeopardize his capability for future employment.”. That all depends on the employer doing the hiring. You’ve got the reports. Would you hire him? I can’t say right now. It would depend on how he talks about it. (If it’s his only one.) He's a 6K'ish pilot with 250ish in type.

Keep in mind, only one walked away. The two in the front were seriously injured. He may very well have lost his medical and can’t fly again. Also - The guy that walked was a new hire pilot. Hmmm….

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1980 300D - Veggie Burner !

Two pilots flying and a third observing??

According to the report:
Pilot was sitting front right seat.
Reporter was sitting front left seat.
Pilot (new hire) was sitting in the rear center seat observing.
He's the one that walked. (seen in video).
The guys up front have much more stuff around them to get hit by and penned in with.

Statistically - The safest place to be inside a helicopter that’s about to crash, is as close to dead center as possible. This is especially true in auto-rotations and if the ship starts spinning. Obviously.

This crash pretty much proved that.

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1980 300D - Veggie Burner !