URL (link) to this photo: airliners.net/open.file/0301994/M/
My apologies to cfijames for not spotting your post. I must admit I am brand new at this and only figured out yesterday how to link photos and info etc.
No problem.
The search feature (way up at the top of the screen) can be very helpful. Sometimes though, when people don’t title their posts intelligently it can be a pain in the rear, it would take all day to search through the hundreds of posts. (in this case, searching “R-44” or “helicopter crash” finds the correct post pretty easily.)
Welcome to the forums. Check out the “Questions/Answers” page (again, way up top, this time on the right) for more help on how to post links, pictures, and other frequently asked questions.
ZS-RSW Henley Air Eurocopter crash caught on cell phone camera. Pilot and person in pickup survive, driver in second car fatal.
video ](http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=04b_1175274825)
NOTE; CRASH VIDEO, 1 pilot killed, 1 pilot and all 3 drunk passengers were rescued by two men on jetskis.
Youtube ](Helicopter crash near Saint-Petersburg - YouTube)
WTF!!!
Passenger interference? Can’t think of a mechanical failure that will result in what we’re seeing.
Anybody got a URL for the accident report? Doesn’t have to be in English.
I agree, looks very peculuiar. Doesn’t sound, look, or act like an engine abnormality. It just looks like it goes out of control. Jammed or unresponsive controls?
ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?id= … 212&rpt=fa
Probably departed from that same spot dozens of times before…Uh, with the hangar door closed?
Then try to place culpability on the front passenger?..The video doesn’t lie said the NTSB investigator… 
In Finnish Language](http://www.iltasanomat.fi/uutiset/ulkomaat/uutinen.asp?id=1391671) update quote from Associated Press.
[ ]LiveLeak](http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=952_1182814028) downloaded on June 25/07 also comments listed below video.
Emergency workers were searching Sunday for the
pilot of a helicopter that crashed on the shores
of the Gulf of Finland outside St. Petersburg,
leaving three people injured, officials said.
The AS-355 helicopter belonging to Balt Avia went
down around 6:30 p.m. (1430 GMT) Saturday about 75
kilometers (45 miles) west of the city, said
Viktor Beltsov, spokesman for the Emergency
Situations Ministry.
A crew member and two passengers were injured and
rescuers were searching for a pilot. One passenger
was unharmed, Beltsov said.
The official said the cause of the crash was being
investigated.
Reading the comments, there’s one from a 1st Cav trooper who thinks the pilot might have been attempting to perform an RTT (Return To Target) turn in order to flyover the beach.
[Conjecture]
This is a much favored maneuver of Cobra and Apache drivers and looks RAD when performed correctly. If that is what the pilot in the subject video was attempting, suffice it to say that he didn’t perform it correctly.
To complete an RTT you need airspeed and, more importantly, rotor speed. You dive slightly to get the rotor up close to redline, pull up trading forward speed for altitude, when you’re at zero airspeed you kick the aircraft 180 with the tail rotor and dive/accelerate again on your reciprocal heading.
By performing that popup climb in the beginning of the maneuver this guy lost most of his rotor speed, and therefore his lift, as he attempted to make his turn and wound up falling out of the sky.
[/Conjecture]