Savoia,
Off topic I know.
Very good report on the incident in the Falklands involving XR628.
The reason for it ditching was infact due to a tail rotor coupling failure not a main gearbox input drive.
Having braved the freezing water, 2 of us entered the water to remove the four blades and get the aircraft ready for lifting, which did not happen for another 6 hours.
It was only after XT649 suffered engine FOD damage that we were able to get 628 lifted out of the water and moved to Fitzroy where the damage 649 was having its engine removed. Overnight we switched the engines over and completed ground runs by 08:15 the following morning.
The picture below shows me in the freezing water having removed the blades, which are probably still on the bank of the Pond. The damaged tail drive shaft cover can be seen clearly just forward of the Rotary Transformer.
To think that this happened 31 years ago.
