Helicopter crash when landing on Trinity yacht "Bacarella"

It's at a pier, why didn't they just land the helo at the closest real helo pad on land? I don't think the yacht owner is liable, the guests and helo pilot chose to land there, but, the yacht could be found negligent for not clearing the deck of any loose items which is necessary before doing helo ops. I sure as heck would not have wanted to be the crewmember who was guiding the helo in!!!!!!!

It looks like there was no briefing prior landing between the pilot and the crew in charge of helo operation on the ship and/or some kind of carelessness among the ships crew. Which means, the captain of the ship will have a hard time to explain. Lessons learned, even the best helicopter pilot in the world will be in trouble, if the landing site strikes back (FOD). IMHO, maritime helo operations should be left to seriously minded professionals and are not the playground for adventurers and stuntmen (That's what he calls himself).

But at least he handled the emergency like a pro. Obeyed rule Nr.1, In case of emergency during landing or approach, get away from the ship and he managed to activate the pop out floats prior impact. His licence will be in danger, if the CAA and EASA are getting involved.

The problem with the 3 blade rotors of the smaller Eurocopters is their rather small amount of kinetic energy in those light weight rotor blades. Hitting something will take the energy out of the whole fan and blade stall is imminent. A Bell 207 or 407 would have most likely survived that incidence almost undamaged.

The cloth was quickly shredded so I doubt it was sufficient resistance to stop the kinetic energy of the blade disc therefore I don't think this was a blade stall. The rapid yaw of the fuselage may not have been torque related to the main blades, but rather a section of the cloth encountering the tail rotor blades. That would explain the rapid yaw. Any cyclic command by the pilot could easily become opposite of intentional input when pirouetting.

I would agree on that very logical explanation, if there was tail rotor damage. If not, a rapid deceleration of the main rotor can also cause a rapid yaw of the hull.

I was just saying, that I personally like helicopters with more energy (momentum) in their rotor blades. It is a higher safety margin, when hitting a foreign object (or bird) and during auto rotation after engine failure. Best example was the famous UH-1 with her blade momentum of more than 3 metric tons. We have seen a SAR UH-1 D cutting off a street lamp and taking off again after a short visual inspection.

On those single engine helos with light main rotors, you have to be fairly quick to get the collective pitch down during engine failure before the rotor RPM gets critical.

The biggest advantage of the 3 blade Eurocopter is their blade folding system. All 3 blades fold to the rear, means for storage only the hull length remains.

I've reviewed the available videos, in depth, with my crew. We believe that the loose article was actually a canvas cover for a fueling station (lift pump/hose reel). If you look at the photo in Post#29 you'll notice a large cube-ish rack on the top deck of Bacarella, which doesn't look as if it belongs on the center of the sundeck. I suspect that is the fueling station, that was likely retro-fitted for helo-ops.
With such an unsightly piece of equipment in the midst of a guest area, it was probably fitted with a canvas cover (as we do on yachts) to dress it up.
My guess is that the cover wasn't properly secured to withstand the wash associated with a landing helicopter, and took flight when it was subjected to the down-draft.