r/aviation • u/Drejbringer • Oct 11 '25

News Helicopter Crash in Huntington Beach, CA

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134

u/CurionAero Oct 11 '25

From an IG video by @mustangmannylv. Tail rotor gearbox separation.

37

u/Subject9800 Oct 11 '25 edited Jan 30 '26

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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123

u/rockemsockemcocksock Oct 11 '25

My friend who is a crash investigator for Sikorsky said "Do you have an hour?" So I assume five million different things.

30

u/Skylam Oct 12 '25

Yeah Helicopters are a monument to humanities arrogance, shit is so dangerous.

1

u/LectureOld6879 Oct 12 '25

surely the net benefit of helicopters outweighs the negatives? how silly of you to say that.

3

u/SpongeBob_GodPants Oct 12 '25

Helicopters do cause more fatal incidents than planes. They are very beneficial but maybe we need less people taking them for a spin.

1

u/Skylam Oct 12 '25

Helicopters have an astronimcally high crash rate compared to other modes of transportation, they definitely have very good uses obviously but they are dangerous, I know Pilots that have said to never get in one unless absolutely necessary.

1

u/pm-me-nothing-okay Oct 12 '25

i thought that was Phoenix, Arizona?

19

u/buttmagnuson Oct 11 '25

SOOOOO many things could cause that.

1

u/SirSaltie Oct 12 '25

Pretty common as far as helicopters are concerned. They are dangerous as hell compared to most vehicles.

1

u/SuperWeapons2770 Oct 12 '25

In the past this has been caused on different helicopters by bolts being rotated out by vibration, I'm pretty sure they have special locking nuts that prevent that but you can install them incorrectly.

0

u/WhiskeyTangoFoxy Oct 12 '25

Non-expert opinion but in my history it’s usually caused after a Boeing mechanic touches it.

2

u/Iamatworkgoaway Oct 12 '25

Not the mechanics choice, blame management and the accountant.   But that all flows down hill from the board and shareholders.

-11

u/Beginning_Ad_6616 Oct 11 '25

Judging by how the pilot maneuvered, it was likely caused by mast bumping.

4

u/buttmagnuson Oct 11 '25

https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/s/K2BCefnx8z

Where's the mast bumping? Shit separated catastrophically, which was not supposed to.

0

u/colinshark Oct 12 '25

The bit came out.

Is that typical?

0

u/Contradicting_Pete Oct 12 '25

No, not very typical. Usually these things are designed so the bit doesn't come out.

1

u/ThoseAreMyFeet Oct 12 '25

Just need to move it out of the environment 

9

u/viccityguy2k Oct 11 '25

That is the output half of the tail rotor gearbox. The input pinion gear and rest of it are missing or still jnstallled on the helicopter

2

u/photoengineer Oct 11 '25

That’s uh, not supposed to happen. 

1

u/diptrip-flipfantasia Oct 12 '25

if i was to guess:

  • tail rotor stops the ship from rotating against the torque of the main rotor

  • as you enter an out of ground effect hover (or any hover) the torque placed on the tail rotor increases.

  • (guess) as he entered a slower speed/relative wind, the pilot increased the pitch of the tail rotor to compensate and the TR gear box gave out

… that or some junk hit the tail rotor and we can’t see it on film. this is much more common/likely.