I keep seeing comments about "Pilot Incapacitation"....yet we are confronted with evidence that shows the aircraft engines ran out of fuel and quit running.
If you think the Pilot was incapacitated at the same time the aircraft is running out fuel.....that would seem a huge coincidence indeed.
Stick to the facts and work from there.
Why did the Engines stop getting fuel?
Why did the Pilot fail to take effective action following the second engine failure?
Lowering the Collective Lever is not that difficult....is something we all know to do....but yet in this tragedy....it appears not to have happened.
Focus on that....as it was the last link in the chain but yet the most simple, most logical, and the single most important reaction to situation. Done properly, the outcome might have been a very bad landing....but at least one that would have provided for a better outcome than that which occurred.
All this discussion about pink paste, sequence of caution/warning lights is fine...but does not get to the basic issues.
A very qualified, experienced, well trained Pilot did not take the one action that everything hinged upon.....maintaining Rotor RPM.
That resulted in the Fatal Crash....everything else just set the chain of events into action to force the situation that required that action by the Pilot.
Since there was no CVR or other recordings of conversations in the aircraft....or Data Recorders to show control movements and other useful data....we shall never know exactly what happened. The AAIB will not be able to state with clarity what actually transpired in regard to the Pilot's actions or in-action and will in all likelihood state something like "Pilot failed to maintain Rotor RPM." as part of their Final Report.
We know that already....the physical evidence confirms that.
The "Incapacitation" I see is a failure to realize the aircraft was running out of fuel and a failure to properly react to the indications.....and upon the second engine quitting....a failure to carry out an EOL landing procedure.
I want to know "Why" the Pilot did not respond to what was clearly an Emergency Situation when the first Engine flamed out. When you are getting Low Fuel cautions and then an Engine quits....how much more "Waving Red Flags" does One need to understand the severity of the Situation?