I dropped my friend a line and he answered back with a detailed description of his helo accident. It was one helluva freakish story.
They loaded an older lady in a hilly, wooded area not quite close to Ostrava (the largest city in the region, my birthplace). She had symptoms of a serious stroke, it was 1998, no one really expected her to live long, but not that short either.
A few minutes into the flight something (a nut?) exploded in the rotor and they went down like a stone. Very, very hard crash, still in a hilly, wooded area, but close to a big water reservoir, an artificial lake.
The lady died on impact. All other people on board survived with serious injuries, but they were saved by an unbelievable coincidence. A mine rescue team from Ostrava had a regular training on the lake and the helicopter crashed in their sight, less than a kilometer away. So they were there in like 3 minutes, dragged them to safety and put the burning wreck out.
If this was a movie, it would look totally unrealistic. But it happened.
Three months of rehabilitation and friend's lower back is still bad. He cannot stand completely upright, tilts slightly to a side.
Here's the best explanation I know of: https://youtu.be/jDg1G2y8ZX4?t=293
(As far as I can tell no-one has made an animation of what happens.)
Good point, went down like a stone is unlikely to be true.
> a type of rotor system that wouldn't typically be used in an air ambulance setting
Sure, I didn't phrase my comment very well, hadn't meant to imply otherwise.
I'm not sure if those figures are true globally or just for the US.
[0] https://www.flyingmag.com/aircraft/helicopters/air-ambulance...
[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123370317612745375