We're always allowed to speculate, but mis-information is just as bad (if not worse) than no information. Just in case anyone was curious, 163335 is a TH-57B that I flew on 26 Sep 2000, it's also the aircraft that I downed my safe-for-solo checkride. Eerie. It also made me realize that when preparing my resume, I'm probably missing out on 3.0 of helo PIC time because they didn't log (and I didn't catch) my 2 ET's after that pink sheet. Funny how you remember things...
Just talked to a buddy who's a brand new instructor in HT-8, and yes - it was a FAM. HT-8 and HT-18 are both in holding patterns until they rule out a mechanical problem. I won't go into details about what he said about pending investigation - however he did tell me that the instructor checked in with Spencer, told them that he would be working north for 10-15 minutes, and after over 30 minutes when they didn't hear from him again, alarm bells went off. They were on the ground for over an hour before they found them. Other than that, he speculated alot but I won't share that info at this time...