A helicopter can auto-rotate, though that's really the least-bad option if you're in that sort of situation. It turns an assuredly fatal scenario into a hopefully, maybe, possibly survivable one: https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/14605/how-does-...

Here's a demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTqu9iMiPIU

Haha! That Neil DeGrasse Tyson, what a dummy.

(Good sport, though. And I also thought a helicopter would drop like a rock without power.)

It drops like a rock if the Jesus Nut (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_nut) fails, but that situation is freakishly rare.

So similar to how a maple seed glides?

Not really. Watch the video. A maple seed has less control over how it spins.

Helicopters can auto-rotate, "gliding" on the momentum of the main rotor. This allows for a controllable landing under loss of power.

There have been rare cases where a mechanical failure seizes the main rotor, such as the crash of the WNBC news chopper (N8617B) in 1986. This particular incident was caused by poor maintenance, however.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorotation

http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/Dornacker-N8617B.htm

Roughly as dissimilar as a sack of bricks versus a helicopter. Those small ducted fans will do absolutely nothing while you fall down. Maybe they'll spin a little bit to recharge the batteries, sort of a built in confusion generator for the people doing the autopsy: "Why didn't they just land the thing, it's got some charge left?".

Where do people get the idea that helicopters just fall from the sky when there's a power failure?

Do people think that others are flying around everyday in machines that will likely kill them in case of a malfunction? Is the media is covering up all the helicopter related fatalities?

People just don't realize there is such a thing as auto-rotation.

Yes, that is exactly what I thought. Me and Neal DeGrasse Tyson!