Horrifying simulation shows what would happen if you fell into the blades of a helicopter
Spoiler alert: it's not pretty!
Bec Oakes
Ever wanted to know what would happen if you got caught up in the moving blades of a helicopter? A simulation shows just that and the result is horrifying.
Watch the gruesome outcome below:
We all stuck our fingers in the blades of a ceiling fan as kids just to see what happened. And, one battered and bruised hand later, we never did it again.
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But, do that on a much larger scale and the damage is far greater than a band-aid and a hug from your mom could fix.
How would one happen to get caught up in the moving blades of a chopper you ask?
Well now, let's say you're going skydiving - as you do - and you've just jumped out the plane, thousands of feet in the air and you're speeding down towards Earth.
While most people successfully open their parachutes and float safely back down to the ground, let's say instead you ended up falling into the blades of a low-flying copter?
In a video posted to Reddit, a 3D figure can be seen being dropped on top of a helicopter using a drone.
And as the figure slowly approaches the rotating blades, it is sliced into tiny bits of bone and meat, first chopping off the feet, then the legs, then hands, the torso, and so on.
The unlucky test dummy is then flung backwards and blown away into the ether.
Of course, this is based on the assumption that you would fall straight through the blades, like a pencil jump.
The reality is probably slightly less orderly, and a hell of a lot messier, but you get the general idea.
However, not everyone was so convinced by the simulation.
Some in the comments argued that a human body would cause a serious amount of damage to the blades, which could affect how the scenario would really go.
One person wrote: "Fixed wing dude here, wouldn’t the blades take some damage?"
Another added: "Um, not too sure that's what will happen, I mean the body will be cut up but the blades are gonna have some serious damage.
"Bones aren't too soft. Imbalance may cause secondary damage by loss of balancing weights and the power demand due to deceleration might cause momentary droop compensation adding to the imbalance. Overall, the chopper won't stay as smooth.
"Body gets reckt though soo 10/10 there."
And a third said: "I was told a simple passenger baseball cap flying up into the rotor would make the blades (a blade?) unusable. Can’t imagine what would happen in this scenario."