Originally Posted by
capngrog
It looks like the helicopter hit on its right side while yawing to the left, yet the Robinson rotor system as viewed from above rotates counter-clockwise (as do most American designs), which upon loss of tail rotor authority would induce a yaw to the right. Or am I missing something again? Was the tail rotor drive train damage pre or post impact?
As mentioned, the missing parts in the accident picture departed the aircraft in flight which tends to cause severe control issues due to the loss of weight/thrust at such a long arm. How it ended up on the right side is probably more based on chance than any "controlled" effort. A number of helicopters that lose the entire backend tend to roll inverted depending on internal loading. What caused the T/R assy and fin to depart has still not been determined.