PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Helicopter down outside Leicester City Football Club
Old 31st Oct 2018, 16:50
  #379 (permalink)  
VintageEngineer
 
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As a former helicopter maintenance engineer, I can confidently say that if an AW169 lost a tail rotor blade then the gearbox will rapidly break free and depart from the airframe.
Helicopters with 4-bladed tail rotors might, with luck, throw the opposite blade too, thus putting the rotor back into some form of balance, but a 3-bladed tail rotor has no chance.
The pictures I have seen suggest that a tail rotor blade loss is highly unlikely to be the cause of this accident.
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