👍
Thanks for keeping up with it
Likewise V_Twin. Likewise.
Latest reporting reveals that the helicopter was found at the 5,800’ elevation.
Not that it matters to the deceased or their families, but was this a controlled flight into terrain, a mechanical issue gone bad, a high velocity downdraft near a ridgeline, or something else?
A few hundred feet higher and the bird would have cleared the local terrain, and it would have been clear sailing to their San Diego base, unless the crew had the really bad luck of flying straight into Cuyamaca Peak (6,515’).
At one point in the flight, the helo. would have to ascend high enough to clear the White mountains, and the Sierra Nevada mountains, both of which have towering peaks of well over 14,000’ in elevation.
A preliminary investigation will likely be forthcoming and may point to causation, such as weather being a factor, a mechanical issue or pilot error, using empirical data from the flight recorder.
I’ve flown in these behemoths, and twice there were anomalies. Once, passengers had to relocate from the back of the bird to the front as the center of gravity was too far aft, owing to a pallet of ammunition being the primary cargo load.
Another time when I was the loan passenger with some equipment strapped to the floor, the tail fuselage/rotor assembly, somehow got out of trim and whipped rapidly sideways scaring the hell out of me and the four person aircrew. The pilot sent the door gunner to the back of the bird to see if he could spot something that caused the freaky motion. Thankfully, the pilot brought the helo. out of the whiplashing motion or else I wouldn’t be here posting to this thread.