At 9:44 a.m., the helicopter began to ascend rapidly, climbing 875 feet vertically in the following 36 seconds. That’s a rapid ascent rate — one that [Jerry Kidrick, a 35-year Army helicopter veteran and a professor of advanced helicopter operations at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University] describes as a “spatial disorientation profile.”“That pace at which he climbed indicates he’s trying to get out of there, or he got spatially disoriented,” said Kidrick. “That’s a very common thing [investigators] find post-crash, the pilot makes rapid corrections and rapid maneuvering... he does something radical to try to change that. It appears something went wrong.”Capital Weather Gang

Source: Washington Post January 27, 2020 12:34 UTC