Originally Posted by
Wageslave
the pilot failed to react in the most fundamental manner by lowering the collective.
Therein lies the rub. Where, in any report, is it stating categorically, without equivocation, that the pilot failed to lower the collective and enter an auto? Your dogmatic approach is where you come undone: there is just as much possibility that having entered autorotation (by lowering the collective) the circumstances were such that a flare was initiated early and the Nr decayed to an irrecoverably low figure.
We don't know.
And Wageslave, have you done much helicopter flying since your interview with Sooty? Much as airline flying will have shaped your current mindset I read between the lines that you may not have a thorough grasp of modern helicopter operations and the complexities of police ops. Especially at night, on goggs, with an ever changing ops scenario and then faced with an unimagined set of failures.
We are still surmising what happened, and should be cautious in our responses until the AAIB have a more definitive report. There would seem to be a number of issues still to be resolved.