Shy, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. :E

Time critical, life changing, though not life threatening. I'd expect this to be a GO for a specialist SAR aircraft.

https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20191104002700315

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....6ec34ffbc0.jpg

The main rotor is there...

And in the right place... From the damage to the blades they were still rotating fast on impact.

But what about the tail rotor? That sad sight suffered one hell of an impact, nose first by the looks of it.
No tail boom. Before or during impact sequence?

It looks like it but I'm not convinced, as the bulk of the fuselage look relative uncompromised, so I suspect damage in the recovery. Having seen a few aircraft in the AAIB hangar that had high speed impacts with the water, I don't think you could do so in such a way as to destroy the cockpit section, but leave the rest looking like that. Just my thoughts

It looks like what (not clear what you mean)?

It looks like the MR blades were still being driven at impact

My comments were about this statement:

Thanks, understood. It would be disappointing if recovery caused such catastrophic damage.

Looking even closer at that depressing image it looks like the cockpit might have hit the water travelling from right to left and the impact forces completely detached it. Unless I'm mistaking a paint colour change, there also appears to be fire damage to the rear of the fuselage; obviously it wouldn't have burned underwater....

Or met the rotor coming the other way.

Looking at the damage (Cockpit section longitudinally crushed) this thing went in straight and fast with solid engine power turning the rotor at impact. Not spinning. And with enormous RoD.
Taking this together with the circumstances of visibility at the time of the crash, I don't expect much of a surprise...

If we look at the break line of the cockpit section I would say we can pretty much rule this out. Even ignoring that we are not talking about a teetering rotor the typical Robby cut line looks totally different. Or that of the CH53 of the German Army that chopped off the top of the cockpit section a couple of years ago after a faulty maintenance for that matter.

Some pictorial info on the location in this link. I presume it lifted from the helideck on top of the rock. It didn't get very far.

Similarities with this accident, night, TO over water.

https://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/62...ight=139+crash

I tend to think medevac flights are overused, but from a small island with perhaps no medical facilities beyond a first-aid kit? If it were my thumb that got detached, I'm pretty sure I'd be quite happy to jump at a chance to get my thumb reattached while it was still possible.

The patient was said to be a fisherman, so a working thumb might be a useful thing to have.
Now reporting that a third body has been located, perhaps, it is said, the same one that they dropped when lifting the fuselage.

The 139 Bahamas, 505 crash Kenya, I don't get the resigned "no surprise" connection, as if any night takeoff without a visible horizon is doomed. 30 years of offshore and medevac and the thousands of pilots I flew with handled it routine and safe. The EC225 is a very capable aircraft for that role and situation, probably the best. And flown by a SAR crew, which in my experience is better qualified, trained and experienced for those types of missions than anyone else, including offshore pilots. Good crews can make mistakes too, witness the Irish S92 SAR crew even with the FLIR operator gently tapping them on the back. And sorry to disappoint all the EC225 bashers that the tranny and head were still intact, maybe it's time to get over all that and move on. The 92 guys did.

If you look at the construction of the Puma you will find a significant difference in solidity of the 'greenhouse' front office to the rest of the fuselage.

Not the case, you draw the wrong conclusion, merely pointing out the similarity of circumstances. Done my share of night rig take offs.

Video posted in post #34 says there was video of the crash? At 1:23 is that the heli-pad on top of that island? By the comments about the tail being 90 m away from the fuselage and 2 bodies found near the tail would that suggest that the tail was chopped off in flight? Violent control inputs?