Bell 47G-3B crash near Port Edwards, WI, United States

The commercial helicopter pilot reported that he was spraying a cranberry field. During a swath run, numerous bees entered the cockpit via the vent window. He was stung in the left arm twice, and as he tried to remove the bees, he inadvertently pitched the helicopter up. The helicopter climbed to about 35 feet above ground level and the rotor RPM decayed, and the airspeed went to about 30 MPH. The pilot attempted to return to level flight and added power, but he realized that the rotor RPM had decayed too much for a normal recovery. He reported that he "aggressively flared in an effort to reduce my groundspeed." During the flare, the tail boom struck the ground and then the main rotor struck the tail boom. The helicopter yawed right and impacted the terrain.