Temsco Helicopters Aerospatiale AS-350 accident
Aerospatiale AS-350 · Accident: nose down while standing
From Juneau International Airport (JNU) to HERBERT GLACIER, AK
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC94FA089
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Aerospatiale AS-350
- Aircraft type
- Aerospatiale AS-350
- Category
- Helicopter
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N39GT
- Operator
- Temsco Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Juneau International Airport (JNU), AKTo HERBERT GLACIER, AK
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Standing · idling rotors
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Nose down
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, selected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT STATED HE LANDED ON THE GLACIER WHERE HE NORMALLY LANDED, 'IN THE SAME TRACKS.' WHILE HE WAS LEANING OUT THE DOOR TO CHECK THE POSITION OF THE SKIDS THE HELICOPTER NOSED DOWN AND THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES CONTACTED THE SURFACE OF THE ICE WHICH CAUSED THE HELICOPTER TO PIVOT 180 DEGREES ABOUT THE NOSE. EXAMINATION OF THE LANDING AREA SHOWED A DEEP CREVASSE, IN THE AREA OF THE RIGHT SKID'S LANDING POSITION, THAT WAS FILLED WITH CLEAR WATER. THE TOE OF THE RIGHT SKID HAD NO ICE TO REST ON AND FELL INTO THE CREVASSE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S SELECTION OF UNSUITABLE LANDING TERRAIN. A FACTOR WAS THE CREVASSE IN THE ICE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC94FA089
- Event ID
- 20001206X01635
- Case number
- ANC94FA089
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1994-07-20.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 336e6de24da657ae05c16e363157f1d1793a77a4bb58e51b5ae62512b8b02ddd; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:11:51.220Z.