Originally Posted by
Traffic_Is_Er_Was
I think the dark object is the shadow of that tree, with the white branches as the white objects. See photos in #307 and #309. It's in exactly the right spot in relation to the helipad.
The video through the fence shows the departing chopper pretty much maintains a constant heading up to where it finishes just before impact. Looking at the onboard video from the arriving aircraft, if the climbing one is still directly in line with the helipad, it should be more nose on I would have thought...
But don't forget that the landing helicopter wasn't hovering in the collision location rather was also approaching that point at another heading, so in my view they would have seen the starboard front quarter of the departing helicopter. The figure below, from the Aviation Safety Digest 142 article on mid-air accidents, while not replicating the relative headings of this accident, illustrated how the view of the other aircraft can be partly side on yet remain relatively stationary.
