Tandem46

Highly, highly unlikely. True, he hit just below a crest of a small ridge, but that ridge was surrounded by other much higher ridges. Factor in that he was descending at 2000fpm (disoriented and out of control), the fact that he hit 20-30’ below a ridge was pure, well, I don’t want to say coincident but he had to hit somewhere. As a former Navy helo pilot and prior S-76 pilot in the Gulf of Mexico where we flew IFR routinely during the winter, I don’t understand how he lost control so easily. He did the wrong thing by scud running in those hills, but then he did the right thing by getting on the gauges and trying to climb above the terrain. If he was rated/current/proficient on instruments, he should have been able to pull that off.