What a tragedy.
I'm not very knowledgeable about helicopters, but It seems the Bell 206 has had some reliability issues with the freewheel unit (specifically due to lubrication issues, see the links below). To my understanding, if the freewheel unit seizes during a gearbox failure, the forces...
@bugbus The smoke billowing from the chimney right after the lights come back on the first time (that can be seen in the video) would seem to support that. If the steering could be affected even after power is seemingly regained, I don't know. I assume the ship only has one screw and that...
The full video shows the ship suddenly turning to starboard and all of its lights going dark and coming on again multiple times right before the collision. Very strange. Hope they manage to rescue as many as possible.
