Heli Down In Huntington Beach 11th October 2025

[adnoid]

Originally Posted by Uplinker

At about 1:22 on the #18 video, you can see one of the rail rotors suddenly change angle in the rotational plane. Instead of being 180° opposite the other blade, it moves round to about 150/210° from the other blade.
.

The only helicopter I have ever flown is a radio control one that I built - disclaimer - but this didn't look right to me, as if the lower blade was producing lift and the upper was not. Or the other way around, but I believe the TR pushes toward the boom. Maybe this is normal, but it caught my eye:

[martinebrangan]

Originally Posted by Senior Pilot

martinebrangan your total lack of aviation experience (as a long time crash thread junkie) is showing in such an inaccurate statement about pilot input.

A well trained helicopter pilot can recognise and contain the outcome of a TR failure in a number of ways, depending on the circumstances. In this case an immediate cutting of the throttles (or possibly lowering of the collective) would reduce the torque to the MR and arrest the rotation. Further action can reduce the impact; been there, done that and survived.

Tbh my only experience is as fixed wing private pilot and doing training (couldn’t afford much heli training but had taken to it well) on a R22, and pretty much if you don’t react in that aircraft extremely quickly you are a falling pax. Great to hear you survived a horrible circumstance and you can wisely advise on how one can survive with a measure of control and good luck.

[wrench1]

Another point to note is the physical weight loss when the blades and gearbox output quill departed which more than likely gave a noticeable CG shift. And depending on how he was loaded, he may even have been hitting the cyclic stops during the event which made his decent even more interesting.

[martinebrangan]

Originally Posted by 60FltMech

More crash footage


Here’s the best angle I’ve seen so far.

FltMech

That video gives a lot more perspective. I note the pilot had not the capacity throughout the time of that clip to switch off the engine, presumably as a result of his/her injuries. Thankfully no fire.

[Bell_ringer]

I think its safe to say they were incapacitated. If they could shut them down, they would have.

[mechpowi]

Originally Posted by Bell_ringer

Is it though?
In what is effectively an accelerating centrifuge, it quickly becomes difficult to move any limb effectively while trying to maintain control.

That was the point I was trying to make. Operating roof mounted throttles in a spinning cockpit is hard, operating Engine On/Off switches is next to impossible, at least if not flying multi crew.

[Nubian]

Originally Posted by skadi

In this (#18) and other videos you can clearly see the abrupt change of tailrotor RPM prior to the right yawing. So the loss of tailrotor is the main cause!

skadi

Clearly?!
I take the videos into account, but as it seems to be mobile videos, lots can be different than what it seems less than 24 hours after the event. I think it is too early to conclude like you do here.

Now, when the first sign of nose going right, one would expect with that low speed and height almost in a OGE hover, lowering the lever on instinct would stop the right movement or at least limit it, and from that height the rotors have quite a bit of inertia for a hoverauto to a rolling landing. Pulling an armpit full of collective from almost no forward speed if you suspect your tail has failed is irrational when the parking lot is dead ahead and open…
Obviously everyone can do irrational inputs, and lots of different things can be the cause, so to conclude what is the cause this short time after the accident based on some iPhone videos is premature.

[havoc]

From another site PC link?

[Deep Throat]

I make no comment: 0:24

You Tube

Video previously posted

[skadi]

Originally Posted by Nubian

Now, when the first sign of nose going right, one would expect with that low speed and height almost in a OGE hover, lowering the lever on instinct would stop the right movement or at least limit it, and from that height the rotors have quite a bit of inertia for a hoverauto to a rolling landing. Pulling an armpit full of collective from almost no forward speed if you suspect your tail has failed is irrational when the parking lot is dead ahead and open…

Thats one point I also was wondering about. But in the video of the low pass one could see that the landing zone was pretty occupied by other helicopters and many people around.
Luckily the pilot survived and could tell the story

skai

[Pilot DAR]

In the video above, at second 28 of the video, the tail rotor blade appears to suddenly, rapidly change pitch, as the yaw begins.

[Hangarless]

In South Africa anyway, the 222 was more know because of Airwolf rather than it's reputation as being a very good helicopter. I never flew one but as I understand it the machine did not deal with Hot and High very well and as such there were few of them about.

There was one located in the hangar next to ours, yes I had a hangar at one in time, but it seemed to spend more time being attended to by techies and we did not often see it or hear the thump thump sound of it flying.

[Bell_ringer]

Originally Posted by Hangarless

In South Africa anyway, the 222 was more know because of Airwolf rather than it's reputation as being a very good helicopter. I never flew one but as I understand it the machine did not deal with Hot and High very well and as such there were few of them about.

And yet one of the operators has bought every carcass out there and put them to work in HEMS roles.

[Hangarless]

Originally Posted by Bell_ringer

And yet one of the operators has bought every carcass out there and put them to work in HEMS roles.

Which HEMS operator are you referring to, if I may ask?

To the best of my knowledge there were less than 5 of them in SA. NAC brought in a whole lot of 430's which in the end had a very bad consequence when one of them threw a blade in flight.

A good friend of ours also lost his life, in Angola in a 430. The same guy had previously managed to land a 407 after its own tail rotor sailed and chopped off its own tail boom.

[PPRuNeUser469990]

There's one in Manston (UK). It's been in the hangar a while

[Bell_ringer]

Originally Posted by Hangarless

Which HEMS operator are you referring to, if I may ask?

To the best of my knowledge there were less than 5 of them in SA. NAC brought in a whole lot of 430's which in the end had a very bad consequence when one of them threw a blade in flight.

https://www.henleyair.co.za/fleet

SA is where old Bells go to die.
Not many left, mainly UT’s.
430 debacle is a subject for a different topic.

[Senior Pilot]

Originally Posted by mechpowi

That was the point I was trying to make. Operating roof mounted throttles in a spinning cockpit is hard, operating Engine On/Off switches is next to impossible, at least if not flying multi crew.

The Bell 222 does not have ‘roof mounted throttles’, nor are there Engine On/Off switches, they are on the collective as shown in this photo. Just where the pilot’s left hand rests in flight.

For clarification of some basic helicopter dynamics (for the non helicopter aviators here), the tail rotor is there to counteract the torque from the main rotor which is trying to turn the fuselage in the opposite direction to the main rotor. In the case of a tail rotor failure you need to reduce or remove that torque by reducing the engine power; as I commented in my first post this can also be done by lowering the collective which is relatively easy and instinctive action. Or, of course, roll off the throttles which are there in your left hand.



There is some compelling indication of failure of a tail rotor pitch link or similar in some of the images in this thread, but also some conjecture which appears based on video with oft seen electronic distortion caused by the recording itself.

[60FltMech]

I’m sure others have noticed the change in sound from the tail rotor right before the climb was initiated, i thought the tail rotor had gone into one of the palm trees at first but was just the angle in the video.

I wonder if this noise was from a failure of a pitch link and the sound was the tail rotor blade fluttering for lack of a better term? Seems like this would reduce thrust on from the tail rotor by half, in turn causing the yaw.

Then the vibration of the flutter caused the blade attaching hardware to fail and separate, followed by the rest of the assembly?

FltMech

[Bell_ringer]

I guess it’s not fondly called a Cripple 2 for no reason.

[eswillie]

Video that I saw

I've seen quite a few posts in the thread stating that there was no apparent tail strike previous to the start of rotation. I'm betting I can't find it again, but I did watch one video taken from nearly directly below and slightly to the right of the Triple Deuce as it approached the landing area, In that short clip, the rear of the tail boom and the tail rotor can be seen to contact some of the top outer branches or fronds of the palm, after which the rotation to the right begins nearly immediately. As someone who sat half a dozen feet in front of spinning main and tail rotors for a decade of my life, I'm always conscious of the threat of contact, often when there have been only inches to spare. From any of the other videos I watched, I did not see that contact, but I was thankful for the one person who caught it, and I would hope that it gets into the record during the investigation.