Surviving with a broken pitch link

Hi,

I am wondering what the consequences of a broken rotating pitch link of a =
4-bladed rotor will be. From my understanding, the free-to-pitch blade will
eventually come to a high angle of attack that the airloads will crush its
structure and if not the debris will destroy the other rotor blades, the
centrifugal forces of the out-of-balance rotor with the remaining blades
will destroy the rotor head and/or the gearbox.
On the other hand I've seen some FMEAs that say that a broken pitch link
will "only" cause "severe vibration" with "land ASAP" consequences for the
ship.

Any opinions on that (I hope not, made by own experience) ?


Oliver