Brazilian News Chopper Crash Caught on Tape

[Matt Molnar]

The pilot died, and the cameraman was seriously injured. :(

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3d6_1265819760

[Mayi757]

That's crazy man. Any helicopter pilots here who might know what could have caused it?

Tail rotor malfunction perhaps?

[moose135]

Tail rotor malfunction perhaps?
That would be my initial thought. Looks like the main rotor was turning, but they had no control over the tail rotor. Either the rotor itself failed, or the gearbox/shaft failed.

[Gerard]

Reading on a helicopter forum and apparently the pilot realized he had a tail rotor problem and flew around for about
5 minutes or so trying to figure out what to do. He kept it under control for awhile but then it got worse. He found the long grass strip but when he slowed down it began spinning out of control and did an autorotation at 200 feet and we
saw the result of that.
Pretty wild.

[Matt Molnar]

Reading on a helicopter forum and apparently the pilot realized he had a tail rotor problem and flew around for about
5 minutes or so trying to figure out what to do. He kept it under control for awhile but then it got worse. He found the long grass strip but when he slowed down it began spinning out of control and did an autorotation at 200 feet and we
saw the result of that.
Pretty wild.
Interesting. He did a nice job keeping away from the houses. Too bad he didn't make it.