Helicopters regularly cruise at over 120 mph, and the skin is around 1.27 mm thin. The stuff gets SHREDDED in a crash [1], it's generally not load bearing and a

Helicopters regularly cruise at over 120 mph, and the skin is around 1.27 mm thin. The stuff gets SHREDDED in a crash [1], it's generally not load bearing and acts as an aerodynamic fairing for the rest of the helo. The tail boom contains a truss space frame to do the literal heavy lifting. You see those "NO STEP" marks on commercial jet wings, because a human walking on some spots can cause damage. It's very plausible that a 5 lb rigid object (which is also how much a brick weighs), could do significant damage when striking skin at 100+ mph. Add.: A better photo shows it's the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer that was damaged: https://cdn.abcotvs.com/dip/images/5734793_120419-kabc-11pm-air7-damage-vid.jpg?w=800&r=16%3A9 https://cdn.abcotvs.com/dip/images/5734793_120419-kabc-11pm-... The puncture location on the upper surface of leading edge corresponds with a nose-down pitch of the helo in forward flight. [1] This is something I notice wrong in CGI aircraft crashes, where it breaks into big solid chunks that bounce. In reality, aircraft crumple, disintegrate, and smear into tiny pieces on impact, leaving a long trail of small debris.