As RedState reported, a military UH-60 helicopter crashed onto a busy highway in Huntsville, AL, on Wednesday. All those aboard perished.

Now, surveillance footage of the tragic event is offering clues as to what might have happened.

(WARNING: Video contains the actual crash)

When I first heard about the crash, I went and checked the METAR at KHSV (Huntsville’s local airport), and it was reading low overcast with light winds. I did a flight into Huntsville not too long ago, and there is some terrain in the area, so my initial assumption was that the ceilings played a role in the crash.

That assumption appears to be wrong, though. If you look closely at the video (there’s also another angle that shows things a bit closer), you can see that the helicopter is spinning while it rapidly descends. That would suggest there was something mechanical going on. A failure of the tail rotor would cause such a spin. It could also be a loss of power followed by a failed autorotation.

I fly fixed-wing so I’m no expert on helicopter operations, but that’s what it looks like in the video. Still take that with a grain of salt because pilot error is always a probable factor in any aviation crash. RedState will update this story as more information comes in.