This is a 530 and not a 500. 530's are fairly robust and reliable from a failure standpoint.
One of the articles talked about this aircraft chucking the entire tail rotor gearbox, tail rotors and drive shaft into the ocean. That is a big piece of equipment and an awful long shaft to lose out the back. I wonder if the drive shaft remained in the tail boom and I wonder if the gear box broke off where the extension plug bolts to the tail boom or where the gear box bolts to the extension plug?
The difference between a 530 and a 500 in the back is a metal plug to extend the tail rotor, longer tail rotor blades, longer tail rotor drive shaft and an addtional tail rotor drive shaft dampner in the turtleback. It will be interesting to read the investigation report as it is not common to chuck the entire system and it is hard to beleive that the aircraft could have lost the entire tail rotor drive shaft out and past the three dampners.
