Quite impressively, the investigation team looking at the mysterious loss of the Bond Helicopters EC225 Super Puma in the North Sea last week has now recovered the tailcone which broke off completely. You can see the picture full-size here. Commentary below.
A big caution first - any damage seen could obviously have been caused
post-crash, either by the action of the sea or during the recovery
operation. However, here are the points of interest:
It's all supposed to look like this.
- all four tail-rotor blades are attached to the tail-rotor hub which appears securely attached to the fin.
- the ventral strake has lost about 40% of its depth across its entire length (if you see what I mean - basically it looks as if it's been crushed by a vertical impact from below)
- the horizontal stabiliser, which normally protrudes from the left side of the fin just below the height of the tail-rotor hub is entirely missing.
It's all supposed to look like this.
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