[Skytrooper]

I am in concert with Christian's friend. These men were consumate professionals who had performed the EP's hundreds of times. The crash site was far from the training area, so they would not have performed an EP under any circumstance unless it was real. They managed to get the aircraft to the only field large enough to PL (precautionary landing) in the area. They were too low in altitude for being outside the training area also. These lead me to believe that there was a real emergency unfolding and they nursed the aircraft to the first place they could PL. Unfortunately the aircraft didn't cooperate. I have been a regular fixture at the flight facility since my retirement. No one believes it to be pilot/procedural error. The witnesses describing a sputtering is not a normal sound for a functioning helicopter. Sorry, the details do not add up to the army conclusion.