M is for Mast
Cabbie had seen his fair share of aircraft plummet to their deaths. Some had been shot out of the sky, others hit solid core clouds, still others became falling rocks when their wings or tails simply fell off. The old plane had seen enough aircraft go down, so when he saw a flicker of unfamiliar movement in his peripheral vision, he instantly got a sinking feeling in his tanks. A moment late his suspicions were confirmed when Shasta called Mayday over the radio. He didn't get a chance to say anything else.
From Cabbie's vantage point it was clear that the bright yellow helicopter clearly knew that his systems were about to go critical and he was fighting to make it to the ground. He didn't make it…Cabbie had to fight crying out as he watched as Shasta's rotor became detached from the rest of his frame. The disc went flying out into the forest while the rest of Shasta…well the rest of him was no longer capable of lift.
As a rule of thumb, helicopters didn't survive their crashes. This was especially true for an aircraft that experienced mast failure. If Shasta would have been a few feet above the ground, he might have had a chance, but plummeting from that far up Cabbie knew that his friend had just died on impact. At this point, all he could do was stand guard over his remains until the authorities were able to come and start their investigation.
"Cabbie. Do you have eyes on him?" The Chief asked as the little plane sped towards him. Cabbie banked, tightening his circle around the burning mangled wreckage.
"I have eyes on him." Cabbie spoke with slow deliberation. "And…and we have another one for the wall."
"Are you sure?" The Chief voice nearly caught in his throat.
"Yes…" Cabbie breathed in a voice just above a whisper. Only the howl of the wind replied as those on the other end of the radio each process their shock in their own way.
Cabbie had seen his share of aircraft plummet to their deaths…but that didn't matter because each of those death cut through his soul as sharply as the first he had ever witnessed.
Term – Mast – A helicopter's mast is the non-rotating structure that holds the aircraft's rotor blades in place. The mast is the piece of the helicopter that undergoes the most stress and, as a result, needs extra inspection/maintenance to make sure that it doesn't experience catastrophic failure.