[alistairSH]

The automobile equivalent would be something jamming your steering wheel to one side - even if you decoupled the motor from the rotor (and tried to auto-gyro to safety), the helicopter would still be stuck in a sideways spiral.

[jldugger]

Yea, autogyro (which I only know about due to this vid[1]) sounds like the answer to OP's question, but that would not (and clearly _did not) save this Chinook from what happened.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiTuwQGImNo

[jaclaz]

The autogyro is a type of airplane:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autogyro

You mean autorotation, I believe:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorotation

[jldugger]

Ah, yea.