BASys,
Not really sure what you are on about to be honest. Look at the 2 semi circular abrasions on the red and black paint - I said nothing about it being on a different airframe and different colours? What else on a helicopter can cause large radius semi circular abrasion marks other than the rotor?
As for position of the rotor head - you are aware the rotor head completely detached itself from the airframe? So you tell me what position the rotor head was in? Anything is possible as we are not talking about normal running conditions. Look at the blades - they obviously struck the helicopter so its not impossible it grazed the panel as it departed the airframe is it? Not so supernatural or a rediculous thing to suggest....
Mitchaa,
Skotty was spot on with his diagram. Epicylcic gear failure leaves NO room in the gearbox for broken parts and so the gearbox casing gets burst open at the epicyclic ring where the debris gets jammed between planetary gears and the ring gear. It wouldn't burst off the conical housing as that is above the epicyclic. Once the gearcase has fractured open then any rotor torque on the conical housing would be practically 0 as the fractured section is free to rotate seperate from the MGB. Therefor it would not shear here. For this reason I believe the failure WOULD be similar to G-REDL if it was an epicyclic destruction. At least the conical housing remaining. That is not the case here.
It is not easy to see on the G-REDL recovery picture but if you zoom in you can see the edges of the 2 epicyclic gears. I have tried to highlight them for you.
