Actually, a morning of typing and clicking unearthed some more info on the death in Rantoul. And I finally think I've got a reasonable understanding of how it happened.
****** had taken off with a load of skydivers. Evidently, his "normal" procedure was to fly them out a ways, then do a really sharp, low ninety-degree reversal and come back to buzz the loading zone before climbing to altitude.
On the fatal flight, there was a videographer out by the turn-around point. It is debatable whether the guy was actually a skydiver. Some say yes, some say no. It matters not. It is also debatable (however moot) as to whether ****** knew he was there. ...Although, I fail to see how a man crouching in basically a big grass field would be invisible to a pilot.
During -***** hairy-a** turn, he evidently got his main rotor blades so low to the ground that they struck the man. One witness says it was head-level. Whatever. It means that the main rotor blades were less than six feet from the ground.
For pictures of the helicopter, go here:
http://pics.kaybee.org/skydiving/quincy99/helicopter/
One of the picture captions says: "These guys are in for a great ride!" Just after the incident, it read: "These guys are in for a wild ride!" but it was changed for some reason to the tamer version. Although the pics on this site are from the WFFC event held in Quincy, Illinois, they fairly represent the situation later that year in Rantoul.
For the report of someone who was actually ON the helicopter, go here:
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/foru...ed;guest=65222
The skydivers are a fiercely loyal group, and don't want *ANY* bad publicity. The reasons for this should be obvious; they engage in a "sport" that many people would consider unreasonably dangerous. Thus, they need airports like the one in Rantoul to host their conventions. Accidents of this sort make people skittish.
After the event, a group of skydivers made up a hugh sympathy card for the pilot, expressing their support; a nice gesture. View it here:
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/foru...50;guest=65232
Notice the little illustration of the helicopter. It's upside-down! Gee, I wonder why they represented it that way?
The skydivers also went to great lengths to absolve ***** of any blame in the matter and to castigate the guy who got killed - whom they termed a "whuffer" (whatever that is - a skydiving term). Read some of their initial comments here:
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/foru...ed;guest=65232
I don't mean to harp endlessly about this. But the death of this skydiver (who's name was Tim Kalendek, by the way) should not be casually dismissed as "just one of those things." It was a horrible tragedy that could have been averted if the pilot (*****) had not been hot-dogging for the crowd.