So, if my understanding is correct, it appears that the duplex bearing seized solid, causing what should have been a non-rotating component to become physically welded and locked to the rotating part of the shaft, so that it also rotated, unscrewed then threw off the locking nut, overwhelming its thread locking methods. Effectively, the pilots yaw pedals were no longer connected to the tail rotor pitch change mechanism and the servo went to full travel, pushing the tail rotor to a position where it would give maximum right yaw.
Unfortunately, JetScream32, transitioning to forward flight would not have made any difference. The aircraft would still have yawed hard right because the tail rotor made it do so as hard as it physically could. Shutting down both engines and entering autorotation would not have stopped it from yawing right. As I wrote earlier in this thread, the closest equivalent failure on a twin engined aeroplane would have been a full right rudder deflection with asymmetric thrust pushing it in the same direction, making it worse. If the "outer" engine of said aeroplane were shut down to remove the asymmetric thrust, the rudder was still at full deflection.
Irrecoverable and horrible to contemplate.
Last edited by ShyTorque; 6th Dec 2018 at 16:55.
Reason: To hopefully clarify.