Stupid pilots?
I heard this second-hand a long time ago, so cannot vouch for its accuracy.
Many moons ago, a young 206 pilot was asked to drop a huge bag of ping-pong balls over a crowd at a show. A couple of the balls had special numbers or marks on them and the lucky finder would get a prize.
The balls were held in a bag, much like that used for aerial fire-fighting, the intention being to pull the release whilst climbing gently over the crowd.
The pilot decided to bring a bit more excitement into the event and went into autorotation towards the crowd.............. intending to open the bag once recovery to the climb had been achieved...............pulled the bag open too early and ingested dozens of balls into the engine intakes with disastrous consequences......................
Anybody else out there able to substantiate this one, including location etc. Possibly in the early 80's