Originally Posted by
tr7v8
It looks pretty windy there what are the flying limits for a job like that. Done a few A/c moves in/out buildings but all with a rented crane, not a chopper.
The "windy" conditions you see is the rotorwash from the helicopter.
It could have been a hook failure, an accidental release or a commanded release. I don't see anything that would suggest a reason to purposefully punch off the load. I have seen hooks not lock completely and fail in this manner after taking load for a short amount of time. I have also seen hooks just plain break and drop a load. Or they hit the button accidentally. This ship had been on fire contracts with a tank for the majority of the year, and maybe during reconfiguring it, people forgot what switch did what?
This is one of the reasons I was taught to never turn my back to a helicopter/load, and minimize or eliminate time under a load.