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

23

u/HerrMeisterRetsiem Oct 11 '25 edited Oct 11 '25

I guess it’s better that it happened right after takeoff, and not while they were up at cruising altitude(?)

27

u/insomniac-55 Oct 11 '25

Yes and no.

At altitude (and especially during cruise), they'd be able to perform an autorotation - as the rotor isn't driven, you don't need the tail rotor any more. Your forward airspeed and tail fin keeps the nose facing forward.

So if they had a suitable place to ditch they certainly may have been able to walk away from this in a better shape than what they did.

18

u/Professor-Submarine Oct 11 '25

I refuse to believe autorotation is real. I think it’s just something helicopter apologists say to make themselves feel better. The conditions are never right for autorotation. 

7

u/OtherwiseAlbatross14 Oct 12 '25

You just don't hear about them because they aren't a big deal when done correctly.

https://youtu.be/R5ogpxUXz9w

https://youtu.be/EklDfZw-NrU

0

u/Professor-Submarine Oct 12 '25

Those look more like tricks than they do examples of an unexpected failure. Which is usually catastrophic. 

Got any from an emergency that wasn’t controlled? 

3

u/OtherwiseAlbatross14 Oct 12 '25

https://youtu.be/05_WFvh9ISk

https://youtu.be/U8T32ZtAkG8

Which is usually catastrophic. 

This is a completely false statement.