Originally Posted by
Boudreaux Bob
Logical question and exactly the same I was asking myself.
Plenty of altitude to gradually gain some airspeed without having to tuck the Nose and bring on a very high rate of descent.
Quite possibly the weight of the parachutist caught on the tail had altered the CofG enough that the pilot was unable to apply enough nose down attitude to attain any forward speed. If this is the case then he was caught in a high altitude hover autorotation. Not likely that he would recover enough energy from the rotor system to perform a safe landing.
That or he was a poorly trained pilot or did not heed his training.