Posted on 02/20/2022 7:33:57 AM PST by BenLurkin
One police officer died and another is in critical condition after a law-enforcement helicopter crashed in Newport Beach Saturday night.
The helicopter crashed near West Balboa Boulevard and 18th Street, according to Newport Beach Police Department spokeswoman Heather Rangel.
Security footage from a nearby resident shows the helicopter spinning and losing altitude, and aerial footage from Sky5 showed the helicopter to be submerged in water a few yards offshore.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
Really bad day for helicopters in the US yesterday. Wonder what sort of coming week helicopters will have in the Ukraine.
Also helicopter crash off Miami Beach, killing one officer. Swimmers injured.
Saw that vid...pretty scary. Was this one of those tourist deals that gives you a 20 min ride along the oceanside? I’ve never felt those were particularly well maintained...
I see many videos of crashing copters and the spinning thing is common. Does anyone know if that’s a problem with the rear rotor?
Looks like tourist flight or charter, and not a LEO copter.
I misunderstood the Miami PD tweet.
Don’t forget about the special opa helicopter lost in Syria recently.
“Also helicopter crash off Miami Beach, killing one officer. Swimmers injured.”
No one killed. No swimmers injured.
The spinning is almost always a loss of tail rotor authority. (Although that model uses an air duct system for anti-torque rather than a tail rotor, the principle is the same.)The function of the tail rotor is to counteract the torque of the main rotor. If the tail rotor fails, the only way to stop or reduce spinning is to shut down the engine and enter autorotation. The MD-500 series have a low inertia rotor system and do not autorotate well, as opposed to the Bell Jet Ranger and Long Ranger which have high inertia rotor systems.
The HB pilot possibly turned toward the water to avoid hitting houses or people on the ground. If that was the case he’d have almost no visual horizon. It would be very difficult for him to execute a successful autorotation in those circumstances.
Thanks.
Any general failure of the rear rotor can cause uncontrolled body rotation.
The police officer who died adopted a German shepherd puppy from the rescue I volunteer for.
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