One time when lack of airspace below the wheels is probably a good thing!
 

Ouch!

Video - Rotor Severs Tail in Angola Helicopter Crash | All Things Aero

Good crowd line too!!!

What would have been the likely control input that would have caused that?
Overly aggressive movement of cyclic?

There's been a thread on this over on Rotorheads for the past week: 1jan2015 video:...and BANG goes the main rotor of this Alouette 3... :ok:

They are going to struggle to top that for the 40th anniversary, glad everyone walked away from it.

I was fire officer at Seletar which at the time was home to 66 Squadron Belvederes. Avpin fires on start-up were not unknown. After one such incident the section for deaths/injuries in the report read "pilot broke ankle jumping out of aircraft"!

Yes, fire, the worst, I don't know if you have seen the Sea Knight film where it catches fire on lift off and is filmed from inside.. Frightning.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a26_1190194748

Tankertrashnav, was that the same 66 Belvedere that lit up at the AOCs visit to Seletar before we left for Kuching? I recall being one of many trying to put it out with domestic foam extinguishers, only for the Mk6 to pitch up and vomit foam out of the back end instead of the lance? I remember it folded like an airfix kit!
Happy days!

Bill, no that was the year before I arrived. I dont think my predecessor's career was enhanced by the incident. Two of the foam vehicles collided on the way to the fire, another stopped with its wheels on a hose which had just started to produce foam, leaving the situation you described. Meanwhile the Belvedere burned to a smoky smudge on the grass! The one I referred to had a happier outcome (except for the pilot's ankle!)