Accident Sequence
The pilot of Sky 6 was returning to Tamiami Airport in Miami, Florida, when he overheard a friend departing. They established radio contact on the air-to-air frequency, and the Sky 6 pilot decided to join his friend on the outbound leg. He made a 180-degree turn and joined up on the right side of his friend's helicopter. After a brief conversation, Sky 6 departed.
The friend reported that Sky 6 started a descent with a nose-down attitude of about 15 degrees. The passenger, however, described the descent as having a 45-degree nose-down attitude. Both the friend and the passenger stated that the nose of Sky 6 then pitched up to 70 degrees or beyond the 90-degree point. The helicopter yawed to the left, held that orientation, appeared to slide backwards, then the nose pitched down, the tail boom assembly separated, and the helicopter collided with terrain.
Another news helicopter pilot who knew the Sky 6 pilot stated he overheard Sky 6 talking with another pilot on the air-to-air frequency and assumed they knew each other. At about 1530, he and a flight controller heard Sky 6 state, 'watch this.' No further communication from Sky 6 was heard.
Witness Accounts
Witnesses on the ground observed both helicopters in straight and level flight. They then saw the accident helicopter's nose pitch down, followed by a pitch-up to a near-vertical nose-up attitude. The helicopter yawed to the left, slid backwards, the nose pitched down, and the tail boom separated. The helicopter began rotating to the right until it disappeared from view.
Background
Other news helicopter pilots noted that the Sky 6 pilot would typically arrive at a news scene and stop the helicopter by conducting a cyclic climb maneuver, then bring it to a hover. A friend of the pilot recounted a conversation from early February 2000 in which the pilot described a maneuver he had been performing: making a high-speed pass down a runway followed by a steep pull-up. At the top of the pull-up, he would reverse the heading by 180 degrees and then recover from the ensuing dive, similar to a hammerhead turn in a fixed-wing aircraft.
Examination
Examination of the airframe, flight controls, engine assembly, and accessories revealed no evidence of a pre-crash mechanical failure or malfunction. Examination of the tail boom assembly revealed four main rotor blade strikes in addition to the fracture that resulted in the separation of the tail boom.