LAX95LA005 · Hiller UH-12E
Helicair Hiller UH-12E · Accident: fire while maneuvering
From Salinas Municipal Airport (SNS) to Salinas Municipal Airport (SNS)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA005
- 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
- General aviation
- 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
Hiller UH-12E
- Aircraft type
- Hiller UH-12
- 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
- N145HA
- Operator
- Helicair
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Salinas Municipal Airport (SNS)To Salinas Municipal Airport (SNS), CA
- 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- Maneuvering · aerial application
- 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
- Fire
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Engine compartment › Fire
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Salinas, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO THE OPERATOR, THIS WAS THE FIRST FLIGHT OF THE DAY FOR THE HELICOPTER. A GROUND LOADER CREWMAN WAS WATCHING THE APPLICATION RUN AND REPORTED THAT HE SAW WHITE SPARKS AND A FIRE IN THE AREA OF THE ENGINE, THEN THE HELICOPTER BEGAN TO SPIN AND FELL TO THE GROUND. A FIRE THEN ENVELOPED THE AIRCRAFT. AN FAA INSPECTOR RESPONDED TO THE ACCIDENT SITE AND EXAMINED THE HELICOPTER. HE REPORTED THAT DRIVE SYSTEM CONTINUITY WAS ESTABLISHED THROUGHOUT THE AIRCRAFT, AND THAT ALL ROTATING COMPONENTS OF THE MAIN AND TAIL ROTOR SYSTEMS WERE ACCOUNTED FOR IN THE WRECKAGE. THE ENGINE WAS EXAMINED IN DETAIL. THE ACCESSORY SECTION, ALL ACCESSORIES, THE CARBURETORS, MAGNETOS, PUMPS, AND ENGINE COMPARTMENT FUEL AND OIL LINES WERE COMPLETELY MELTED. THE NUMBER TWO CYLINDER HEAD SUSTAINED EXTREME HEAT DISTRESS WITH PARTIAL MELTING OF THE HEAD NOTED. THE VALVES, VALVE SPRINGS, ROCKER ARMS, AND VALVE SEATS FOR THE NUMBER TWO CYLINDER HEAD WERE PRESENT IN THE REMAINS OF THE HEAD. NO EVIDENCE WAS FOUND OF AN INTERNAL CATASTROPHIC FAILURE.
Probable cause
an in-flight engine compartment fire for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA005
- Event ID
- 20001206X02465
- Case number
- LAX95LA005
- 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: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 0be751ed44ea84c0f1b3140c7fb25cb8456fcb7490e59abb770b0a454481d779; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:35:29.185Z.