HAHAHAHAH! I laugh. Pilots arguing over whether a crash was "caused" by VRS or SWP. HAHAHAHAH. So silly. I've said for a long time that IT DOES NOT MATTER which is which. The end-results are the same: If you come in downwind, chances are good that you will crash and the geeks on PPRUNE will argue interminably about which particular anomaly you experienced. You can go up to altitude and do VRS demonstrations all you like - but that's not where the accidents happen, is it? Nope, they happen at the bottom of f'ed-up approaches. When you pull the collective up but the helicopter keeps descending, the dynamics of what's happening are pretty moot. Who cares?
1. Does wind always blow horizontally, or can there be vertical components that might affect and compromise that scientific and sacrosanct "300 fpm" RoD that people think is so vital and absolute in exciting VRS? (Exciting it, not exiting it.)
2. People talk about "overpitching." Will a B3 droop its rotor if you pull 100% power?
Argue on, my brothers. Me, I'll just keep laughing and landing into the wind, thank you. Which is what our foolish Astar pilot should have done. (Or at least, if he knew that he had a ripping tailwind and needed to go into that spot anyway, he should have performed the technique properly. Sadly, he - or she! - knows that now.)
Repeat after me: "It doesn't matter how many hours you have; helicopters are very easy to crash." Learn it, live it.