The suggestion, from what I gather from eye-witness reports, is that the most likely cause of the incident appears to be a catastrophic mechanical failure cutting the connection between the engine and the rotor blades.
If the engine fails the rotor blades fail. This is not like a plane, which can essentially glide – once the propellers stop there is nowhere else for the helicopter to go other than down.
There is a whole host of things that may have caused this failure and it need not be the same type of problem that occurred on the EC225.
They are completely different models with completely different components.
Although there are other things that may have caused the crash, like human error and bad weather, it is more likely to be some sort of mechanical failure.
There is a very slim chance that the pilot may have pressed the wrong buttons which would have led to the engine cutting out.
The other type of human error that may have occurred is due to failures in terms of maintenance. If the aircraft wasn’t checked properly then it is possible that a fault had occurred and had not been detected on time.
Of course you cannot rule out something like a bird hitting the propellers and causing the crash.
However, if this was the case, then you would have expected those on board to feel something that would resemble a collision.
It is also strange there have been no directions from the AAIB since the incident calling for the models to be grounded officially.
That would tend to indicate officials may believe this was not down to a technical fault.
It was lucky the helicopter was coming in to land when it crashed.
As it was so close to the sea, this meant there was more chance of survivors.
If it had been thousands of feet in the air there would have been little chance of anyone surviving this as, by the sounds of it, the aircraft plummeted into the sea without much warning or time for the crew to carry out any sort of controlled landing.
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