Both of these manoeuvres would be less hazardous if the pilot could call on a second source of power to turn the blades for a few seconds while he was performing them, and Jean-Michel Billig and his team at Eurocopter (part of EADS, an aerospace and defence group) hope to provide just that.
Pentagon officials said it was five minutes after the time of impact before the mayday call was issued, indicating the pilot was struggling to regain control of the crippled plane.