Helitrans (Norway) AS-350 missing off coast of Germany

[Thone1]

@TechPilot:

This practice area was a state fair, a protected area surrounded by fences and rollercoasters and god knows what else.

They maybe might have seen the helicopter descend, but surely not crash.
And as @skadi wrote, it was around 4 nm away.

Secondly, according to german news reports, they were indeed using GSM-jammers, but probably not at the time of the accident. And even if, what should be the implications of a GSM-jammer to an aircraft?

@TaT: Coming from Lübeck, they could have chosen a route passing the TRA on either side.
Yes, flying this route is slightly longer and lead them over the sea, but not by much.

@all: If you look up Google Maps, go to Lübeck Airport (Lübeck Blankensee).
Due north you´ll find "Sierksdorf" right on the shore of the Lübeck Bight.
Zoom in and a mile or so NE you´ll find "Hansapark". This is were the special forces were practicing.
The aircraft crashed due ESE of "Hansapark".

From my point of view (I regularly fly in this area) a sensible decision would have been to head NNW, up to Fehmarn and cross the Baltic Sea there.
That´s the so-called "Flying Bird Line", offering the shortest hop over the water. Surely birds know what they do.

The duty SAR crew was on scene not long after the alert (stationed at Warnemünde near Rostock), but nothing was found. I do not know and do not wish to report how long it´s taken for the radar operator to miss the aircraft and initiate the appropriate action.
That will be published by the BFU, the German Air Accident Investigation Branch in due course.

Thomas

EDIT: Kieler Nachrichten (Kiel News) reporting the following:
"das während der Übung keine Störsender eingesetzt wurden, außer am 6. Dezember für 15 Minuten in der Zeit von 01.05 Uhr bis ca. 01.20 Uhr ein GSM-Jammer im Rahmen des Zugriffs. Dieses Gerät störte laut Polizei lediglich die GSM Frequenzen in einem horizontal von Norden nach Süden verlaufenden etwa 300 Meter langen und 30 Meter breiten Korridor."

During the exercise there were no jammers used, except for the 6th Dec. for 15 min. between 01:05 and 01:20. That was a GSM jammer, jamming in a corridor running N-S, about 300m long and 30m wide.