Helicopter Crash which killed Top Afghan General.

[Tiger G]

Apologies as usual if it's already been posted.

LiveLeak.com - Footage of Helicopter Crash which killed Top Afghan General

[Flypro]

Just about the worst time to have a tail rotor drive failure.

Absolutely no chance overshooting and the longer the pilot takes to react, the worse the situation becomes.

[5150]

As a non-rotarian (!) - what would the technique be for recovering from this?

[ShyTorque]

Engines to idle/off asap and try to cushion the landing (and stay upright) as best you can.

[FixClrEnt]

I'm not convinced that the tail rotor drive failure wasn't caused by it making contact with the terrain behind the helicopter as it yawed right coming into the hover.

[9 lives]

I've only once flown a helicopter whose throttle was not a twist grip on the collective. That was the AS355. But I have wondered, if things got bad fast, and you wanted to remove power, without dumping the collective right away, you'd have to take hands off controls to find the condition lever(s) then shut engines down? If it happened there, I would not want to be taking my hands of the flight controls.

[Flypro]

Step Turn, I'm afraid that closing the throttle on a twist grip collective will only reduce the severity of the problem not cancel it. To kill the torque reaction you need to shut the engine (the torque provider) down entirely.

In a Helicopter without a twist grip you will most probably have to take a hand off the controls to shut the engine(s) down - hence, something for the co-pilot to do for you, if you are fortunate enough to have one that is !!

[3wheels]

The video seems to "jump" just as they tail rotor would have hit the hill (if it did). Edited?
There appears to be two bits flying off just after impact at 0.15, and another bit flying off 2 seconds later at 0.17. All pieces moving quickly from right to left....