But a hit using a chopper crash..?
To keep the logistics simple, that usually means the pilot has to consent to his own death.
I do believe the (epic) weirdness long going on at The Standard (hotel chain), but the chopper angle...?
Jeez....
There were 4 on board the chopper, 3 died.
The (Spanish) person at the controls did have a pilot’s license, did have a part owership stake of a chopper biz, but was mainly a real-estate investor:
http://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/tn-dpt-me-copter-crash-20180201-story.html
I was thinking it had been a 100% pro pilot, in which case it’d be complex to have a hit carried out this way.
But this way...?
Still a long shot, but not impossible.
Any pilot can tell you how easy it is.
Any pilot can tell you how easy it is.
A little bit of the wrong fuel....A missing safety wire on a control....A scratch on a prop blade.
The NTSB can find all of those things, but what do the spooks do with the information?
I am not suggesting any of that happened here, only pointing out that the pilot does not need to be suicidal.
And who knows? If the hotel was involved illegal fun and games, the hotel owner probably knew. Therefore, there would be a list of people who would hope he went away.
Again not suggesting this is the case. Only making the point that the pilot need not be suicidal.
Not if the copter was sabotaged.
Easy to sabotage a chopper. Could have been a hit on one or all of them.
You don’t think they’d bring down an entire plane just to kill one target!
What about sending a message. Chopper was a message, we can get them, then we can get you as well. Maybe someone on the chopper had information they wanted to keep quiet. IMHO
My take was they were attempting to flee, trying to get ahead of the law. I noted it seemed similar to what happened the night SA was drained.
It’s not hard to sabotage the flight controls of a helicopter if you know what to look for and have the right tools....a couple of pulled cotter pins and back out a few threads to control links is all it takes...or just contaminate the fuel.
Well, by the looks of the pavement skid and the position at final rest it looks like there was some type of blade or transmission failure preventing or hampering autorotation. Granted a low altitude and forward motion will make that difficult too. Pops autorotated each of the 4 times he was shot down, and had the transmission scatter in one and he said that was the worst for an unscheduled dirt meeting (they were only about 100 feet up though).
I heard someone say (being interviewed) that they saw smoke, don’t know if there was a bang.