Originally Posted by
John Eacott
I disagree: hold a straight edge against the image, and the mast above the swashplate is parallel to below the swashplate on both sides, in all photos shown here.
John: I may be wrong, but compare the orientation of the gearbox down low with the orientation of the mast up high. They seem completely different. It isn't as if there is a bevel gear between those parts. I have added some approximate straight lines through both to try to illustrate:
I can certainly see how different people view this differently since I first thought bent, then straight, but now see it as bent again.
I don't think a bent mast necessarily gives any clues about the cause. Presumably massive loads on the system when it was pulled off the fuselage (for what ever reason), but as with what wrench1 says about the blades, any bent mast could have happened on striking the water (which isn't as 'soft' as we sometimes view it to be).
A few other observations:
(1) Does anyone see a pair of pitch links on the recovered rotor? I only see one.
(2) If a single pitch link failed and was ejected, how would the helicopter respond? Presumably quite unpredictably? (see this AH-1W case:
https://nypost.com/2012/05/18/bird-s...investigators/ )
(3) Would a pitch link being ejected have been visible in any of the footage of the break-up sequence? John Kasuku (post #197) spotted two small items potentially parting early in the event, but realised they could simply be video artefacts.
(4) bryancobb at #225 thought he could see a different grey nodal beam. I suspect what he may be seeing is the same 'yellow' components as the others but blurred by the chain wire fence that the ABC News footage appears to have been taken through?
(5) Can anything be gleaned from the trajectory of the helicopter as seen in the footage of it passing behind the skyscraper? To me, it seemed to already be 'projectile motion' from early in the break-up sequence. At a stretch, that might mean collective had been lowered at around that point. I realise the video is through a 'fish eye' lens that would distort (curve) what may otherwise have been a straight and level flight path (at least initially).