Originally Posted by
Airbeater350
Surely you’re taking the piss??
I'm just looking at the images and applying my analytical skills (having previously found that hurrumphing bluster is not of much value in accident investigation).
The damage is to the side of the tailboom fairing, the leading edge of the fin and the tail rotor, all indicating that the drone was in front of the helicopter and the direction of collision was from the front. For the damage to have carried on that far down the side of the helicopter the relative velocity must have been quite high - drone large enough to cause that sort of damage don't fly that fast, so it is more likely that the helicopter was flying fast when it hit the drone than it is for the drone to have been flying fast when it hit the helicopter.
The news item suggests that the helicopter was "chasing" a cross-country race car at the time, so presumably it was quite low and almost certainly VFR (ie where it is the pilot's obligation to see and avoid). Had the helicopter been given exclusive use of "sanitised" airspace above thr race or were there other aircraft operating in the area? Had the pilot been explicitly told that there wouled be no other air vehicles operating over the race? Even if he/she had would that absolve the pilot in command of his/her responsibility to see and avoid in VMC?
The drone could just have easly have been a large bird, an ultralight or another helicopter. I don't see any clear-cut case that the drone was in error here. We need to see the details before concluding that this was anything more than a pilot whose sight and brain were not in a piece of airspace before his helicopter got there IMHO.
€0.0005 supplied (YMMV),
PDR