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No details yet , rumor was they missed the dolly when landing , knocked the tail rotor off , helicopter went into a 4 minute torque spin on the ground , rumor 2 people were tossed from the cabin and are deceased . Somewhere near San Diego I think. Sad news.

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http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/new ... -carlsbad/
CARLSBAD — Two people died aboard a helicopter that spun wildly out of control and crashed at McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad Wednesday, authorities said.
The crash and a fire were reported about 4:20 p.m. The helicopter was described only as a small Astar, said Carlsbad fire Division Chief Mike Lopez. He said the pilot was trying to land at the time.
A witness said he saw the helicopter spinning and tilting on the ground, with the blades striking the pavement and sparking.
Marco Hernandez, who was checking his airplane with plans to fly to Torrance, said as he watched, two people inside the helicopter were trying to get out. Then, he said, the aircraft tipped over.
He said his view then was blocked by vehicles driven over to the helicopter. A cloud of smoke erupted from the helicopter.
County fire crews at the airport used foam to spray the aircraft, preventing spilled fuel and oil from burning, Lopez said. Carlsbad and Vista firefighters assisted.
The crash occurred near Premier Jet hangars.
Helicopter pilot Mark Simo was working in the Premier Jet building when he said people came in and told him and others to get out. He walked out and saw the helicopter spinning “out of control.”
He said it appeared that the tail rotor had hit the ground after landing, causing the helicopter to go out of control for what he said seemed to be at least five minutes.
He said he saw one man hanging partially out of the helicopter, still strapped into his seat. He appeared to be unconscious, Simo said.
Simo called it a high-performance helicopter and said he was not aware of seeing it at the airport before.
An employee at Civic Helicopters, which offers flight training, said none of their craft was involved in the crash.
Lopez said he could not confirm that the helicopter was privately owned, but he said it was not a public safety aircraft and was not used for flight training.
The airport was closed during the investigation by the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board.
Very sad.

Damn. Ugly ride!
Sorry for the loss of lives.

AD for tail rotor servo transparency came out a month ago the system is shit the hyd test causes fluid starvation and the bugger starts spinning at any time- now that you spin you need to remove your hand from collective to reach fuel condition lever below collective, or on the roof.

they* put the throttles at the collective for a reason 'Airbus"

* Any helicopter manufacture worth a shit knows torque is not your friend without a tail rotor.


Those people where murdered by Air Bus / Arospatiale /Eurocopter /who ever owns them next.

Another video different angle

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Video of the tail strike.

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Stupidity paid in full , Still a throttle on the collective would of been a better idea than what they have now,

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Never flown in the AS350 but been around them lots , they all hover with that swaying-swinging motion , apparently has to do with the fuselage design interacting with rotor downwash.

Never seen one in a true stable hover , when they do set the skids down they have to dump collective in the last couple of inches before it moves somewhere else.

Don't you hate it when something happens and the person with the camera points it the other way.... DoH!!

Why was it so nervous hovering? it never once looked settled? Was the pilot learning/under instruction?

Is there no emergency shut down on those things? Very sad really .... bummer

That big smooth belly lets the air bubble out randomly at any point it would help to put a strake down one side .
It wallows at a hover held too long, the engine has nothing for the pilot to quickly shut it down,

the fuel condition lever is on the floor with a guard and a gated lock (POS) move the guard grab the lever move off the detent move to cut off. (all that time your hands off the collective ) If it had a throttle on the end of the collective he could of shut it down with half a turn instead of spinning for four minutes etching up the tarmac and on to the runway or into the eatery not too far away or a fueled jet next to the hangars.

totally fucked up design that doesn't meet FAA requirements (commerce department bilateral agreement)

In Arnie's video of the tail strike, it sure appeared to me that the pilot was experiencing ground resonance.
Each time the gear touched the tarmac, the rotor went nuts. One of the dampers may have gone bad.
That would be one scary nightmare.

no resinance at all, he over controlled. If it was resinance he would of shook like a wet dog sheading parts not go spinning like a top.

Just my uneducated take on it.... the whole time he seemed to be overcontrolling? If he was having issues he should have maybe just set it down before it went over frontwards and he yanked the stick back?

They would be 'power cyclic' yes? Maybe that wasn't working resulting in a heavy cyclic?

I have ridden through more ground resonance than l want to remember of. That was not it. Seemed like practicing set down went bad.

NO SHIT !!!!!
Very sad .
Something was going very wrong in that hover prior to touchdown .
I'm still not sure what killed them ?
I seen nothing that would have caused death.
Would the G's in that spin cause death ?

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Latest reports say the pilot had been talking to the tower and told them somebody forgot to chock the wheels on the dolly and it kept moving around.

I didn't see a dolly in the pic? I know if I were trying to land on a dolly and it moved .... Phuck talking to the tower, I would have landed next to it and put it on the dolly after kicking whoevers butt for not securing it?

A silly thing to die for

no dolly saw an overhead shot of the whole area damn thing spun from the ramp south to the runway siding

A Wayne Louis (bank prez) and a Bruse Erricson (real estate) one was a helo pilot the other was a fixed winger both set up
a situation they couldn't fix- Wont be the last time for a "let me try" or "watch this" moment.

Any chance of seeing the overhead shot hillbilly?

EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That was an unintended bump and was over corrected!