Investigators scouring the hulk that was once a Cougar Helicopters S-92 aren't sure of how 17 or the 18 on board the oil platform transport perished the morning of 12 March after the pilots reportedly attempted to ditch off the coast of Newfoundland due to mechanical problems, but what they are sure of is that indicators on the seats those passengers were belted into show an impact of 20+ Gs (20 times the force of gravity) when the helicopter hit the water in a relatively flat attitude.
The picture above, taken by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada during the airframe recovery operation, shows the extent of the damage.
Despite the destructive forces at work, one of two passengers plucked from the icy water by rescuers was alive, and in fact was recently released from the hospital.
How he lived to tell the story (at some future time) remains a mystery.
What is known, in part due to the work of John Paul Stapp, a US Air Force flight surgeon, is that humans can live through rapid decelerations of much more than 20Gs, under certain conditions.
Stapp, who died of old age in 1999, is most famous for being one of the volunteers that rode rocket sleds that accelerated to more than 600 mph in roughly 6 seconds then quickly decelerated to a stop in just over one second, exposing him to G forces in some cases greater than 40Gs in the forward direction in the name of crash and ejection seat safety research.
A video segment from the Discovery Channel shows one of his famous rides, and some of the after effects of the forces, especially to his eyes. Stapp also researched ejection seats, proving that pilots could eject from an aircraft traveling at supersonic speeds and live through the massive deceleration that would follow.
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