Round,
Call it what you want...."Crash" or "Ditching".....the aircraft went into the water, wound up inverted, and as we both know.....survival rates are greatly diminished when the aircraft fails to remain upright and fills with water.
You also know Helicopters are particularly prone to roll over particularly if one of the standard float bags is damaged or fails to inflate.
The Hi-Side mounted Float Bags concept was proven to very effective preventing the Helicopter from doing just as this aircraft did.
At this point Round.....do we "know" it was a Crash? You suppose it was....but until we hear from the Pilots....are you quite certain it was not a Forced Ditching that turned out badly?
I should think you are being premature in casting a vote.
We all can have an opinion on this...but until we hear more....it is totally conjecture what happened.
Probably we can accept two causes are most likely......severe mechanical failure of some kind.....or CFIT....but only the Investigators will be able to tell us with definity what happened.
Last edited by SASless; 25th Aug 2013 at 23:14.