Looks like the ATSB is focussing on a birdstrike of all things? I don't think anyone considered that possibility before
It's not the first and it won't be the last. Many years ago a chap in the US was flying a 206 at night over a city and a bird strike rendered him unconscious for an unkown length of time, woke up and landed, fortunately his 206 had some sort of autopilot looking after the office. Again in the US was a fatal to all on board a S-76 which had a bird come through the windscreen. Where I spent most of my time wedge tails were prominent, along with large number of Ibis and the odd pelican, one of our S-76 aircraft had a strike with a large bird of unkown description, hit at the top of the windscreen divider, knocked both fire handles out of the detent causing both generators to drop off line which then caused loss of the SAS, bird then went up into the rotor which then slapped the bird down through the cabin roof into the passengers laps. Be careful out there.