As the final sequence of a licence test flight the examiner requested the pilot to carry out a normal autorotative landing from circuit height. The aircraft was flared slightly high, recovered but subsequently contacted the ground in a tail low attitude. It then bounced forward and the tail boom was severed by the main rotor. The aircraft flight manual specifies that touchdown following an autorotative descent must be made with the landing skids level. On this occasion touchdown was made on the heels of the skids, and the resulting oscillations of the aircraft allowed the main rotor blades to sail and strike the tail boom.
