Originally Posted by
JohnDixson
One obvious hypothesis arises from the report along these lines; loss of one tail rotor blade, a huge resultant one per tail vibration which in turn results in the tail rotor, tail rotor head and associated structure separating from the aircraft. CG shifts forward, perhaps beyond the capability of the available at cyclic range to correct etc etc.
Fully agreed!
That is indeed the first picture that comes to ones mind when reading the prelim. All four blades detached, one completely missing and the TRGB torn off matches all too well a situation where one blade departs.
When considering that the tail was found 500ft away and the wreckage was in only 16ft of water plus the Eye witness report of spinning lights (basically ruling out extreme forward velocity which could otherwise explain the tail ending up 500ft away) it is very hard to conceive that all this would be the mere result of the impact. Can't be completely ruled out, but Occam's razor would have a pretty clear verdict here...