Apparently someone mentioned that it was a drone, then it disappeared from the the news. Has anyone heard anything?
Prompt: "In the last 50 years how many helicopters in the US have crashed from the rotor detaching?"
The short answer is: extremely few, and probably close to zero incidents caused solely by the entire tail rotor detaching — at least in the U.S. over the last 50 years.
Let me explain.
Helicopter crashes caused by tail rotor failures (like gearbox issues, driveshaft failure, or blade failure) have happened and are a known risk. But complete detachment of the tail rotor assembly is very rare, because:
Tail rotor systems are designed with multiple redundancies.
Most accidents involving tail rotors are due to mechanical failure inside the system or loss of tail rotor thrust, not the rotor physically detaching.
When a crash does happen, the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) records it, and looking through incident reports, you will find some tail rotor failure accidents, but detachment cases are almost nonexistent.
For perspective:
The FAA and NTSB databases record thousands of helicopter accidents in the U.S. over the last 50 years.
Of these, tail rotor failures represent a small fraction.
Tail rotor detachment is even rarer and typically linked to catastrophic mechanical errors or mid-air collisions, which are extremely rare.
Posted by yogurtcult
7 Comments
I’m not sure about the specific helicopter that crashed, but rotor detachments aren’t wholly unheard of, specifically from loss of a Jesus nut.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_nut
Edit: a Jesus nut failure is suspected in this crash
We all know: they took him and his family out. No one is safe, ever.
This video says rotor deflection from abrupt control input. The tail was lost before the rotor separated. I am not sure what the correct answer is.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board and various aviation safety databases, It’s a pretty safe aircraft
The accident rate is roughly 3.5 to 4.0 per 100,000 flight hours, which is typical for light helicopters in this class.
[https://youtu.be/a8Opxj5-SHE?si=rgPywgGgcxo6nYwL](https://youtu.be/a8Opxj5-SHE?si=rgPywgGgcxo6nYwL)
Cloked NOD vessel detected
The main rotor likely hit the tail rotor.
Sadly, this is not uncommon under heavy G-force changes or low RPM situations.
There’s a video of the helicopter literally losing it’s rotor mid air and falling. Nothing hit it
I agree with op I also considered that a drone could hit the helicopter but how massive has to be the drone to detach the rotor… perhaps a sabotage?