There are some damage to the main rotor head but much less than I would have expected. They must have hit the water with very little forward speed.
I have seen the result of a ditching with the 350 and the damage to the main rotor blades was much more severe.
I do not want to speculate regarding the cause of this accident but I would like to comment on Shawns postings regarding hydraulic failure.
I have been around the 350 for quite some time and a considerably number of flying hours and have never experienced a hydraulic failure, even in the old days.
If you do a tight right turn "fighter style" with a high degree of bank you may experience servo transparancy or "jack stall" which at low altitude is deadly but on a straight and level flight with "normal" control inputs no way.
We are of course training on hydraulic failure and if you slow it down to 60-65 knots even a girl can fly it without hydraulics. But since the americans love dual hydraulics maybe that is what is causing the problem? Here in Europe single hydraulic is common.
Statement from Shawn: "I could go on - a brief survey of service difficulty reports showed a huge number of servos removed for motoring or binding, and certainly not meeting time between overhaul."
Well, the 1800 hrs TBO Dunlop servos has never caused us any problems. The 3000 hrs TBO SAMM servos has been another matter, we have had cases where they have started leaking but that does'nt mean that you get a hydraulic failure. Maybe you americans disregard the TBO and run the servos "on condition"? With your 1672 post do you know anything about the AS350 or helicopters? Or are you a "pain in the ass" interested?
This is a very tragic accident and I will follow the result of the investigation with great interest.
I have flown the same route numerous times and Lübeck has been the preferred fuel and coffe stop. But since I feel uncomfortable flying over water we have always been flying over land to Puttgarden and then to Rødby in Denmark. There are ferries going non-stop there so in case of problems you will hopefully be picked up wearing a life-jacket. It's a matter of reducing the exposure time.
Last edited by Bell214B; 16th Dec 2012 at 02:13.