Navy H-46 (BV107). I was flying over mixed land and water about dusk at 1300 ft when the DCPT actuator in the control closet came disconnected due to a cotter pin not installed in prior maintenance about 10 flight hours before. A/C did a high G uncommanded loop and blades meshed at about 1800 ft upside down at the top of the loop. Broke into 3 sections. Very violent. On the way down I was hit in the head (concussion) by the overhead circuit panel coming loose and knocking me into the cyclic (besides having both lower legs broken by the bottom of the instrument panel) was unconscious when we hit the water and woke up about 20 feet down. Egressed and bobbed up next to the copilot (broken back) who thought I had died (had his footprint on my kneeboard where he stepped on me leaving - still friends!). Unfortunately the 3 crewmembers in the back perished. Lots more to the story - buy me a beer sometime if you want to hear the rest.
Still - with 2000 hours or so in them, it's the best helo I've ever flown for power and all around fun. Nothing like doing a head on approach to an underway ship with an external load and doing a button hook, rotating around the nose as you came abeam in a 180 turn and ending up placing the load right on the deck as you swung through.. Although, for a long time, I got a bad feeling in my stomach when the co-pilot would pull back on the cyclic quickly without saying something.
Mike
[[IMG]
Uploaded with
ImageShack.us[/IMG]