No doubt I will be accused of stirring the proverbial sh*t, as I always am when I even breathe near a BA post, but I will give my constructive $0.02.
MartinCh
Wouldn't hard landing damage skids? Then rolling on side, blades destructing themselves, etc?
Was the tailboom broken by itself or hit by MR blade? Blades look 'too good' for tailboom strike or regular rollover.
Not necessarily. They had an accident in 05 very similar to this. Read the report
HERE. The report is extremely vague, (I wrote it that way...
and no I was not on-board, I just did the paperwork). In this case the instructor was not signed off for doing full down autos and was doing "power recoveries". The aircraft hit the ground hard and bounced about 6 inches forward---during the bounce, the instructor pulled aft cyclic and severed the tail boom. The aircraft remained upright with the main rotor system intact. The tail boom was cut at a similar point as is shown in this latest accident. There was no bending or distortion on the landing gear skid tubes. Unfortunately I do not have my pictures of this accident with me---they do show all the ground marks pretty well.
Without knowing anything further, I would like to suggest that this might have been a repeat of the 2005 accident in that during the flare/touchdown portion of an auto, (whether it be simulated or real), the aircraft bounced, aft cyclic was applied thereby severing or distorting the tail boom, T/R authority was lost, the aircraft started to spin with bank angle, a skid contacted the ground and due to the momentum, the aircraft rolled onto its side.
While we are on the subject of autos, one thing that Shawn Coyle and I discussed during his visit to the academy back then, (it was still HAI at the time), was conducting full downs to grass vs hard surface. That may or may not have changed the outcome on the 2005 accident---I tend to think it might have had a different outcome. On grass, the skids dig in which negates the "flex" capability of the system. On a hard surface, a fair amount of the downward energy would be absorbed by the flexing undercarriage and the aircraft "may" not bounce.
For the Bristow "sensor" who likes to accuse me of "stirring"..... All of my comments here are my opinion, are stated for the purpose of continuing education and speculation, and are in no way intended to discredit anyone. It is after all called :
