Russian helicopter airshow crash

[Randy Daytona]

This is what happens when you have a mechanical failure of the tail rotor; unfortunately, the pilot did not make it.

Then again, you can also run out of power and start to spin as evidenced by the Lake Tahoe accident as well. As I use to tell my flight students, "Any moment you can be on YouTube."

 

[wlawr005]

Did the TR actually fail, or did he somehow enter LTE? I only ask because the rotor looked like it was still spinning towards the end.

 

[Recovering LSO]

Looked like it was "windmilling," at best.

 

[wlawr005]

On second look, I agree. There was a definite moment when it wasn't doing shit.

On first look, I thought he may've entered some sort of vortex ring state given the fact his rate of rotation never slowed as I would expect it to with full collective down.

 

[SynixMan]

Didn't look like he tried to pull at the bottom to save it. Debilitating Gs?

 

[jmcquate]

Looked like he stalled and departed. If the tail rotor failed, wouldn't he have auto rotated? Although I have no idea about how whirrly things work. I just rode in the back of them.

 

[ChuckM]

Timed it. Assuming they didn't doctor the footage, and the manuever was at 500 ft or so after the climbout (big assumption), it took about 20 seconds from high hover to ground... Thats roughly a 1500 fpm descent. Also looked like about a ~90 degree per second rotation.

This appeared to be a steady rate of descent all the way to the deck. The pilot probably lost SA of his altitude as he swapped ends.

Neither of those numbers schwagged above scream "death on impact", atleast in an H-60. Bent metal/broken bones, sure... The death likely was a reuslt of an apparently non-crashworthy fuel system or a faulty g-activated fire supression system. Maybe a combination of the surviviors being banged up and the forementioned fire.

I'm assuming it's okish to speculate about Russian mishaps... If not feel free to delete.

 

[squorch2]

Looked like he stalled and departed.

Tell me more of this "stall" in a helicopter.

 

[jmcquate]

Tell me more of this "stall" in a helicopter.

I don't know, when it stop's flying?

 

[squorch2]

(Also, without forward airspeed to get lift from the tail, rotational inertia is going to take you around a few times.)

 

[squorch2]

I don't know

Indeed.

*strokes chin thoughtfully*

 

[Pags]

Looked like he stalled and departed. If the tail rotor failed, wouldn't he have auto rotated? Although I have no idea about how whirrly things work. I just rode in the back of them.

Can't stall a helo.

I doubt VRS because the conditions when he entered aren't right.

I agree with ChuckM that it looked like an attempt at a controlled descent due to low descent rate. Reminds me of the video of the H-60 crash during tsunami relief ops.

I was also surprised by the fireball during the crash; either the Russians don't have the same safety features or they didn't work.

 

[bert]

They attributed it to a massive hydraulic flight control failure (to translate to H-60 think primary hydraulics, not boost). If you look at the maneuver they were trying to perform, he could have been stuck at not enough power to HOGE power and some left pedal.

Ugly either way, but if it was "only" a t/r drive I expect it would have looked a little different.

Edit: Maybe not - there is a little kick to the right before the spin starts. Could be they just mistimed for trying to pull at the bottom, it comes up fast. Wouldn't be the first time something got lost in translation with their mishap causes.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

Can't stall a helo.

I doubt VRS because the conditions when he entered aren't right.

I agree with ChuckM that it looked like an attempt at a controlled descent due to low descent rate. Reminds me of the video of the H-60 crash during tsunami relief ops.

I was also surprised by the fireball during the crash; either the Russians don't have the same safety features or they didn't work.

The video of the H-60 crash during tsunami relief ops was that the one from the Lincoln? If so several of my friends were on the helo when it went down, is the video posted online?

 

[Randy Daytona]

Can't stall a helo.

I doubt VRS because the conditions when he entered aren't right.

I agree with ChuckM that it looked like an attempt at a controlled descent due to low descent rate. Reminds me of the video of the H-60 crash during tsunami relief ops.

I was also surprised by the fireball during the crash; either the Russians don't have the same safety features or they didn't work.

As more of a tangent, helicopters can have retreating blade stall. That does not appear to be the case here, but for the fixed wing guys reading, retreating blade stall is one of the 3 things that limits a helo's forward speed (the others being drag and blade tip speed). As the retreating blade stalls, the helicopter will pitch up and roll (left for an American helo, right for a European/Russian helo and nobody is quite sure on the Boeing) thus departing controlled flight.