Meridian helo down in the Hudson river.

Rotor versus tail boom? Odd thing to happen on a tour, regardless of what caused the failure.
 
The tailboom, tailrotor assembly, and mainrotor/transmission assembly have departed. In what order that happened will be the key.

And to note, it was operated by New York Helicopters and not Meridian which leases/repairs them.
 
I remember an old television show (I think it was It's A Living, but I may be misremembering it) where they are waiting to be evacuated by a helicopter and they're informed that the helicopter broke the tail rotor. Is that important? Only for flying, otherwise you have a $4 million dollar cuisinart.
 
Intact rotor and mast in that picture…I would suspect transmission ring gear failure and separation…catastrophic no matter the case.
 
Another video showed a very hard yaw to the right. Tail boom folded and then the rotor head departed intact.

TR gearbox or driveshaft failure.
 
I know nothing about choppers. Just wanted to say this is horrifying. Absolute nightmare fuel for a pilot of any type of aircraft to contemplate the potential for his ship to catastrophically come from together like that. RIP to the entire family of 5 plus (likely) innocent pilot snuffed out in an instant.
 
FlightmechH3 said:
Another video showed a very hard yaw to the right.
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Looks more like a tailboom mount failure in the full video. I'd be more interested to see what still attached to the tailboom mount ring at this point.

John Spartan said:
No one has said where that wound up.
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There's pics of where it hit the water.
 
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Bell206 said:
Looks more like a tailboom mount failure in the full video. I'd be more interested to see what still attached to the tailboom mount ring at this point.


There's pics of where it hit the water.
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What about a failure of the pylon isolation mount?
 
Flymy47 said:
What about a failure of the pylon isolation mount?
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From the videos, the loss of the MR is secondary to tailboom loss and the cabin spin to the right. I don't think an iso mount failure would give that sequence of events as it was in level flight and at speed. There was a 407 in Hawaii several years ago that went through a similar failure due to a tailboom mount bolt failure but all survived probably due to the difference in MR systems... and a bit of luck... as it had 6 people, at 1500 ft doing 130 knots when it happened.
 
FlightmechH3 said:
Another video showed a very hard yaw to the right. Tail boom folded and then the rotor head departed intact.

TR gearbox or driveshaft failure.
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Are there witness marks on the tail boom from the rotor (and vice-versa)? We'll hopefully find out.
 
Last I heard they hadn't recovered both blades yet, but that could be old/incorrect report.
 
Saw the same pic. The rotors, mast, transmission, and mounts are all still attached. That means you would have had some pretty violent shear forces to separate that whole assembly. Anyone ever had the transmission seize quickly enough to impart full-rotational force on the mounting structure?
 
A friend who's company does business with the leasing corporation said there was recent maintenance on the tail rotor drive line(?). (not his exact words). Some heads are going to roll.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Anyone ever had the transmission seize quickly enough to impart full-rotational force on the mounting structure?
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Not in this type helicopter but in others yes. However, the usual failure path for a seized transmission will cause the housing to fail along the internal gear lines and the MR would separate from the housing. In this case, the entire roof/deck structure failed due to more than just in a shear direction.
 
All I can say is, wow…it came apart fast. I have had a transmission seize in a OH-58C (military version of a 206) that was making chips and was able to get on the ground and let loose and basically was locking up like it had a rotor break when power was removed and shutting down…no rotor break is installed on it. Having the whole mast and transmission separate is not what I expected to see…my background as an MTP on these aircraft early in my career I can’t even speculate as to what happened.
 
Bell206 said:
Looks more like a tailboom mount failure in the full video. I'd be more interested to see what still attached to the tailboom mount ring at this point.


There's pics of where it hit the water.
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Does the 206 use the same design as the 407 failure mentioned in this thread?
 
Bacho said:
Does the 206 use the same design as the 407 failure mentioned in this thread?
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In general yes. There are even some 407 parts that have been used to upgrade 206L4 tailbooms. However, the NTSB pictures show it wasn't the same failure point as the 206 tailboom mount rings remained attached through the breakup sequence. Instead the tailboom broke one bulkhead aft of the mount rings where the loads transfer from the mount fitting structure to the monocoque structure of the tailboom.
 
Bacho said:
Does the 206 use the same design as the 407 failure mentioned in this thread?
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A lot of luck and skill mixed in that accident. That fact that he kept it upright was amazing. We get new bolts every 300 hrs now. Of course that aircraft had 24,000 hrs so there’s that. No telling how old the hardware was but the crack was actually in the fitting itself.

rotormedia.com

When My Tail Boom Left the Aircraft - ROTOR Media

How character, training, and life experiences helped me save six lives.
rotormedia.com rotormedia.com
 
Tarheelpilot said:
The day this happened and I saw the video I thought “there’s a mechanic on suicide watch somewhere.”
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Couldn’t be a A&P except my own planes. I give them credit. Had a local mechanic have a AeroStar go down. Bummed until they found out pilot just lost it in a thunderstorm.
 
Just wondering if the transmission seized, would the whole blade assembly with the transmission autorotate? So in the videos, would we be able to determine that by watching to see in the whole cowl is rotating versus just the blades?
 
francisco collazos said:
Just wondering if the transmission seized, would the whole blade assembly with the transmission autorotate? So in the videos, would we be able to determine that by watching to see in the whole cowl is rotating versus just the blades?
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If the transmission is seized then no, you wouldn’t be able to auto. There would be nothing to disconnect the mast / rotor head from the xmsn. It would drag the rotor Nr down with it.
 
Velocity173 said:
That fact that he kept it upright was amazing.
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The consensus I recall that was probably his saving grace was the aircraft weight and load kept the aircraft within a controllable envelope just as several other accidents that led to similar outcome. Back when the 407 TRs where hitting the t/boom, a 407 in the Gulf made it down minus the TR and vert fin because he had 3 bubbas in the back and a full bagg compartment. Same when a 412 lost a TR gearbox which normally would cause it to invert. However, they had 8 bubbas onboard and a full bagg compartment as well and even though the pilots counted 2 complete flips it hit the water upright and popped the floats. Sometimes people live right and reap the benefits.
 
Some of the speculation points at a failed tail rotor driveshaft flailing around and severing the tailboom. The main rotor then impacts the departing tailboom, and that combined with the unusual loads from flying sideways causes the transmission attachment structure to fail.

Don't know enough about the 206's airframe to have an opinion on the theory above, but figured it would be worth sharing.
 
AV8R_87 said:
Some of the speculation points at a failed tail rotor driveshaft flailing around and severing the tailboom. The main rotor then impacts the departing tailboom, and that combined with the unusual loads from flying sideways causes the transmission attachment structure to fail.

Don't know enough about the 206's airframe to have an opinion on the theory above, but figured it would be worth sharing.
Click to expand...

From the video of the main rotor coming down it didn't look damaged to me.
 
Velocity173 said:
If the transmission is seized then no, you wouldn’t be able to auto. There would be nothing to disconnect the mast / rotor head from the xmsn. It would drag the rotor Nr down with it.
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I investigated an accident in Vietnam that involved a UH-1H carrying troops, part of a Cav 'Blue Team'. Transmission lost fluid in level flight, about 1200 AGL. The transmission warning light was inop, which the pilot may not have recalled from inspecting the log book. So he had two indicators: pressure and temperature. Pressure read zero but temp was steady. Since he was over very hostile territory he voted 2 against 1 and kept flying. Rotor started slowing, he got out a mayday call, and the other aircraft saw the blades stop perpendicular to the fuselage and it spun in like a fixed wing from about 800 feet. There's more to the story but I'll leave it at that.
 
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