I would like to have a go at this in a Sim....and see how different scenario's would play out.
Two key issues to me are reaction time and what the initial Pilot action was....and how the aircraft was moving and reacting to the response made.
If the Collective had been put full down almost immediately.....and the nose lowered....would there have been a different outcome (not necessarily a pretty one).
Likewise....had the landing gear been down the whole time....how would that have affected the outcome of any less than controlled impact.
Early on in this thread I asked the question.....do we cause ourselves problems with all the various profiles as compared to the days when we flew the aircraft based upon all engine performance.
That was meant to ask a question similar to what Chopjock is going on about today.
I posed the question by asking if an old fashioned Confined Area Takeoff (Towering Takeoff) would not have been better than the Profile flown by the Pilot in the accident.
I was suggesting the Stadium is just a confined area....and if we did not bind ourselves to the now required profiles....would the outcome have been better in this case.
I reckon the Towering Takeoff method would in some regards not be that much different than the Rearwards Takeoff that was performed except for going vertical and losing visual contact with your Rejected Landing area.
The height required would be less than that reached by the aircraft....but not much.
The basic fact remains....this was a very difficult failure to define quickly (as to cause of the rotation) but the Pilot response would be too reduce Collective and lower the pitch attitude to obtain some forward airspeed.
If the Tail Rotor had a full stroke input....at zero airspeed (or nearly zero), the failure would very difficult to deal with.
One thing for sure is none of us....none.....ever want to be in the situation that this Pilot was that night.
What is important now is to learn as much as possible from this tragedy.
Discussions like this one is part of that process.
We may poke fun at each other on occasions...and even take objection to some things said....but in the end discussion, debate, and even argument can be productive.