Originally Posted by
DIBO
I've wondered a couple of times, what if.... the CRJ crew had failed to spot the UH60 all together. Now a left-banking evasive manoeuver was started, and only the left wing was substantially shredded by the rotor.
If they would has kept wings level, maybe both wings would have narrowly escaped major damage, only MLG and belly at risk of the main rotor.
But it all doesn't matter, really. 'Fate is the hunter' and they got caught.
From
10-AIR-A FLIGHT DATA RECORDER - AIRPLANE - GROUP CHAIRMAN'S FACTUAL REPORT:
You can see that the pitch-up reduced the airspeed, and the vertical speed was mostly unaffected. This would have had a net effect of making the descent steeper (as the Radio Alt suggests).
If the CRJ crew had remained unaware, we would've learned how the downwash of a helicopter affects the wings of a jet.
The ultimate point is that a situation where a helicopter scrapes by the underside of a jet is not supposed to occur. At this point, all bets are off anyway, and rather than pondering what to do in such a situation, the focus should be on how to prevent it in the first place.