@ Wannabe Flyer
one hawk would not be able to carry much more than 11 troops with gear, ammo for the miniguns, fuel, etc especially in hot weather not just because of the space limitations but the power and lift reduction with a temperature spike, and altitude (not sure if that was a factor.) the tail rotor is different on this, so the main rotor would almost certainly be different. if that were true it may have more powerful engines and so on, they could have sling-loaded the downed bird with a chinook or maybe even the hyper-stealth-steroid-hawk either way they likely had a multi-ship trail party to clean up or some sort of plan B../
Other thoughts* if the tailcone is primarily composite, and it was punctured by gunfire, rpg, or a wall the opposing gyroscopic forces of the tail rotor, tail rotor driveshaft, and tailcone driveshafts could tear the whole thing off.. but the pic on reuters of inside the compound show exploded parts of a helicopter burnt (like composites do.) so who knows.
food for thought.. stealth coating on the windows was a topic in another thread i forget which.. but, unpiloted helicopter?