Helicopter Crash Kills Four

[karrie]

CRANBROOK, B.C. -- A pedestrian crushed yesterday under the exploding fireball of a crashed helicopter had little warning of the tragedy, witnesses said.
The person was walking along a residential street in the quiet community of Cranbrook, B.C., when the chopper dropped out of the sky and onto the pavement, killing three people on board and the pedestrian below.
The chopper exploded into a fireball as it hit the street, leaving a trail of flames and wreckage as it skidded for several metres along the street.
"There was a pedestrian walking on the street across from me and he was just about at the back alley and I don't think he even knew what hit him," Elmer Bautz, who saw the crash from his front window, told The Canadian Press in a telephone interview.
"It actually touched the pedestrian and I think that's when it decapitated (the pedestrian)."

full article

 

[lone wolf]

Sounds like the pilot made an attempt to put it down on the street to avoid structures. It may have been perfect had the pedestrian's luck been with him. "...didn't even know what hit him" is swift and merciful.

 

[karrie]

Swift and merciful yes.

But, I'd still rather never go in any way that burns my corpse into people's minds thanks. Being decapitated on a city street while out for a stroll pretty much ensures that your family will forever struggle to remember the good stuff about you, instead of just the way you died.

I'd rather not be the subject matter of someone's nightmares.

 

[MHz]

I wonder if they were listening to an ipod or something. You would think a chopper coming down is going to make more than a little bit of noise.

 

[karrie]

It would make noise, but, you wouldn't necessarily think it was going to smash into you. I'm betting that a chopper falls pretty quickly.

 

[MHz]

They aren't very light either. The have to admit the first thing I thought was, "What are the odds of that happening?", quickly followed by "Damn, that's gotta hurt."

 

[karrie]

What are the odds, no kidding.

 

[lone wolf]

In autorotation, it falls at considerably less than freefall - but you don't get a lot of choice about where you're going to set down.

 

[talloola]

It's bad enough that the people in the chopper were killed, but, talk about being in the
wrong place at the wrong time, that poor guy apparantly was just going to mail box to
mail away his passport application.:-(

 

[MHz]

It won't auto rotate if it is still coupled to the turbine, plus you need some altitude to begin with for the rotor to spin-up

 

[lone wolf]

I haven't seen footage to see it come in. Autorotation was just an assumption. They do seem to happen faster closer to ground....

 

[MHz]

Those ultra-light gyro's look like they would be a blast