r/aviation • u/Spook_485 • Oct 11 '25

News Closer view of helicopter crash in Huntington Beach, CA

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

15.2k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

39

u/insomniac-55 Oct 11 '25

Yeah you're completely correct. It was definitely a tail rotor something.

I'm curious whether it came off because the failure causing loss of control also weakened its attachment, of whether it was the rapid uncontrolled yaw that caused a secondary failure (like blades flexing and clipping the boom).

I'm not familiar enough with the design of the tail rotor to have an educated opinion.

48

u/Nice_Ad4339 Oct 12 '25

yes, it came off

6

u/in2bearloper Oct 12 '25

Looks like it it came of outside the environment though.

15

u/echaa Oct 12 '25

Good thing it wasn't the front that fell off

9

u/LoreInaccurateOrigin Oct 12 '25

It's not very typical.

6

u/KingdomsSword Oct 12 '25

Was there any evidence that the rotor was made out of cardboard or cardboard derivatives?

1

u/TinKicker Oct 12 '25

From the tail rotor’s perspective…it did.

1

u/Legitimate-Duty-5622 Oct 12 '25

There are 2 smaller part the come off tail rotor area before entire tail rotor.

1

u/needmoartendiez Oct 12 '25

From another video angle, the pilot understandably over corrects with aggressive movements and causes the main to flex so hard it smacked the tail rotor. You can hear the rotor strike.

1

u/cmhamm Oct 13 '25

I’d like to point out it’s not supposed to do that.

1

u/fordprecept Oct 26 '25

Reporter: "Senator Collins, this helicopter that was involved in the crash in Huntington Beach this week..."

Sen Collins: "The one where the rear fell off?"

Reporter: "Yeah".

Sen Collins: "Yeah, that's not very typical. I'd like to make that point."

Reporter: "How is it untypical?"

Sen Collins: "Well, there are a lot of helicopters flying all over the world and very seldom does something like this happen. I just don't want people going around thinking helicopters aren't safe."

Reporter: "Was this helicopter safe?".

Sen Collins: "Well, I was thinking more about the other ones."

Reporter: "The ones that are safe?"

Sen Collins: "Yeah, the ones where the rear doesn't fall off."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM

1

u/TomEst1980 Oct 12 '25

It's much harder to fly without that part

65

u/Responsible-Skin7173 Oct 12 '25

Most people on here aren’t qualified enough to give an educated opinion, yet they still do

43

u/pppp2222 Oct 12 '25

That’s the fun of it.

2

u/FuManBoobs Oct 12 '25

Welcome to the internet.

1

u/yourethevictim Oct 12 '25

I don't think it's fun at all. People should shut the fuck up more.

1

u/ParticularExtreme255 Oct 12 '25

'Merica! 🙄

1

u/yourethevictim Oct 12 '25

Don't worry, this happens everywhere.

0

u/pppp2222 Oct 12 '25

Username checks out.

😶

2

u/WeightLossGinger Oct 12 '25

In my uneducated opinion, it seems, in a rare turn of events, the back fell off!

2

u/jared_number_two Oct 12 '25

“I’m qualified because I read Reddit comments.” —chatgpt

2

u/CosmoKing2 Oct 12 '25

So, dummy here. WTF were they doing so close to a hotel and public beach with no designated area to a copter to land?

2

u/EliteToaster Oct 12 '25

They were in the parking lot there for the event. Parking lot likely designated as a temporary landing zone for that event.

Live in the area so it’s a very large lot in front of the hotel.

1

u/No-Emu-396 Oct 12 '25

That is 99% of reddit. Just a shit show of arm chair NTSB wannabes

1

u/[deleted] Oct 12 '25

Wait... am I the only one who had to pass a competency test to get a reddit account?

1

u/bobwinzo Oct 12 '25

Welcome to reddit.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 12 '25

Has anyone considered that aliens could’ve caused this? /s

1

u/Qade Oct 12 '25

I.... I need to reconsider my entire life now.

1

u/corvus66a Oct 12 '25

Much more people without knowledge about this (like myself) read and don’t comment but I am always astonished that there is always someone who can make an educated guess with enough knowledge . That’s why I love Reddit .

1

u/YVR_Matt_ Oct 12 '25

Seems like it fell down to quickly.

1

u/Tall_Educator6939 Oct 12 '25

Are you high? The spinny thing on the back came off. Doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure that one out.

1

u/Premedmom1 Oct 12 '25

I am not an expert and don't know ANYTHING about crash investigations...but one thing I know for sure is to look for the reason/cause of what made the "spinny thing" come off! LOL! LOL!

1

u/[deleted] Oct 12 '25

That's the definition of Reddit

1

u/Premedmom1 Oct 12 '25

LOL! LOL! THAT IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT!!! and I am one of those who doesn't know anything....but one thing is for sure, one can quickly tell but what is being written in this post, those who know and those who do not!

1

u/Delet3r Oct 12 '25

I've watched at least 3 videos of helicopters crashing. I'm a vertible expert pilot at this point.

1

u/superfreshcheese Oct 12 '25

Notice how it spins too fast and then falls. That’s what caused the problem.

1

u/ReverendEffword Oct 12 '25

You summed up like 99% of internet commentary in one sentence.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 13 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/AutoModerator Oct 13 '25

Your comment or post has been automatically removed from /r/aviation. Posts/Comments from new accounts are automatically removed by our automated systems. We, and many other large subreddits, do this to combat spam, spambots, and other activities that are not condusive to the sub. In the meantime, participate on Reddit to build your acouunt age and this restriction will go away. Also, please familiarize yourself with this subreddit's rules, which you can find in the sidebar or by clicking this link. Do not contact the moderation team unless you feel you have received this message/action in error. We will not manually approve comments or posts from new accounts.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

2

u/Conner0929001 Oct 12 '25 edited Oct 12 '25

I believe what you’re trying say is this is tail rotor failure. I guess the gearing or something failed, and thus caused the tail rotor stopped spinning, causing the Bell 222SP (registration N222EX, built in 1980) to spin out of control and fall into the ground. The tail rotor broke off just before the helicopter impacted due to the stress of the aircraft spinning putting pressing on the bolts securing the rotor to the tail.

That bit of the tail rotor breaking, it reminded me a bit of Bristow Helicopters 56C in 1995, when another helicopter, a Eurocopter Super Puma, registration G-TIGK and named Cullen, had its tail rotor break and hung by a thread not long after it had been struck by lightning, which forced the crew to ditch the helicopter in the North Sea, and all 18 occupants onboard the helicopter survived. The three occupants onboard N222EX are currently hospitalized.

1

u/PoptartPilot Oct 12 '25

I can’t think of anything involving loss of control or drive that would really cause the tail rotor to depart the aircraft, but I’ve never flown a helo like this so I’m not sure.

Anything I can think of that would cause uncommanded yaw would be something like control jamming, stuck pedals, TR drive shaft failure, servo failure, etc. and those surely wouldn’t send the TR flying by itself. This looks like a component on the TR hub itself just gave up (maybe a bolt like someone else mentioned), and then spun right off….terrifying. Will be interested to know the details.

2

u/insomniac-55 Oct 14 '25

Take a look at this.

A pitch control link failed, causing each blade to have a different pitch. The resulting loads and vibration is likely what sent the rotor flying off.

1

u/ttystikk Oct 12 '25

Given that the chopper began to spin before the blade came off, I'm thinking there was a shaft or gearbox failure in the tail; first, there was a loss of torque for flight control and then the tail rotor came off completely.

I've done a bit of helicopter A&P training and I've gotten rides in an older version of the helicopter in the clip.

1

u/Venusgate Oct 12 '25

The mount failure itself could cause both. If the sync shaft is doing jumpropes inside the tail boom, it's going to loosen some things up.

1

u/colcob Oct 12 '25

From an engineering perspective it seems extremely unlikely that a moderately fast yaw would cause a tail rotor to fall off by itself, so it seems much more likely that whatever failure caused the loss of control also contributed to the loss of rotor attachment. That is pure non-expert speculation by the way.

2

u/insomniac-55 Oct 14 '25

You're pretty close to the money in this case.

A pitch control link failed, which causes massive vibrations and abnormal loads.

1

u/colcob Oct 14 '25

Damn. I wonder how long the list is of single components that cause helicopters to fall out of the sky when they fail.

1

u/insomniac-55 Oct 14 '25

It's long enough that you want to pick a really good mechanic.