I have read this posting with interest.
As far as I know, out of all the 407 accidents where the boom broke off, only on two occassions did the occupant(s) survive.
I saw the remains of a wrecked 407, and I can assure it was'nt a pleasant site. The tail rotor hit the boom in flight, whereafter the boom broke just aft of the horizontal stabilizer, and the vibration that followed, practically tore the boom off. The helicopter went inverted, and crashed in that position with no survivors.
Paco your instructor was pulling your leg when he told you that the 407 has'nt killed anybody, and his nose must have grown a kapola feet when he told you that the 407 flies very well without its tail. It does'nt! Trust me.
When the first 407 crashed, Bell issued some AD's, and crew jokingly called the earlier model 407 the 407AD, coz every week there was an AD to comply with. Bell spent hundreds, if not millions of man hours trying to find a solution to the problem. They issued all sorts of AD's. No abrupt pedal movements above a certain speed. They limited the VNE etc. Then told the 407 owners all is cool, nothing wrong with your heli. And now????
What are they going to say now? Had this incident occurred in flight, I'm sure the pilot and the occupents would not have lived to tell the tale, and other pilots would probably have just said "yeah, the guy was a freshman, and he did'nt know what he was doing. He probably did something he was'nt supposed to do".
It sucks!
407 pilots, beware.