Having been on 118.4 the BPL frequency at the time this happened, I must say that the pilot handled the situation very calmly - so calmly that ATC needed to be asked for the AFS twice.
From witnessing the event first hand my observation is as follows:
The helicopter was in effect doing very tight 250-400ft "circuits" into an easterly wind onto the training area to the south of the Jaymax Hangar/25 threshold. From where I was standing the first approach I saw seemed very disturbing and with me not actually having the landing area in view , fully expected an orange ball and mushroom cloud to appear from behind Morrisons. I must just add that the whole thing did look very dramatic with high rates of descent and big bank angles ( I dont mean to comment on the actual event whether good or bad - this might be perfectly normal operations in autoration practice- Im just a fixed wing chap)
From watching R22/44's doing practice autorotations they normally start from a very high hover and land straight ahead, this is not what was happening with the 500. They were almost circling approaches to land.
Hope this helps, Im not judging anybody, there but for the grace of god go I and all that.
Hope the aircraft is recoverable.
PS. One of the things I wanted to ask is how did this happen, how is it possible to chop of your tail? can this not be designed out?