Originally Posted by
Marv
From the report "It was attached to a strop of approximately six metres in length, making a total length for the underslung load of approximately 10 metres."
Not knowing anything about the pilot at all here, I'm curious whether it was a case of pilot couldn't longline or client didn't want longlines on scene, but the operator/owner wanted the aircraft to stay out of the water spray (i.e. No belly hook) hence the short strop?
It's not the first time a bucket has ended up in a tail rotor by attaching it with a short strop rather than either direct belly hook or longline hence why the OEM manual requires at least a 50' strop or longer if not belly hooking directly to the hook.