Originally Posted by
Nubian
..Landing in tailwind with your tail over a concrete structure as shown, the wind will hit the wall and push up on the horizontal stab, lifting the tail. Combined with the fairly rough set down and reflex jerk on the collective ...
RVDT, Nubian: Never considered the possibility of a longitudinal dynamic roll over before, but I guess it is possible. However I go with the explanation by Nubian for the Fiji accident. To add to that, updraft from ocean side of platform would probably be greater in back half of the rotor disk, exacerbating loss of cyclic authority.
There is extended footage of the accident including lead up on YouTube which I wasn't able to link here but Google "AS350B3 accident Fiji" to watch it. There is also an account of the accident here, including discussion of gusts:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-...n-board-escape
Considering the gusting, pilot set down well. Initially on front of skids. Perhaps there would have been a slight bounce when it settled on back of skids but that seems to be exactly when a gust hit given the reaction of the helicopter.
Returning to the Canadian EC130 crash. TV footage suggests there may also have been a retaining wall on sea side of the landing area. So perhaps circumstances were similar. Of course it depends on strength and direction of wind and orientation of helicopter in that case.