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LAX95LA200 · Eurocopter AS-355F1

31 May 1995 · Lost Hills, CA, United States

Eurocopter AS-355F1 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach

From Meadows Field (BFL) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
LAX95LA200
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

Eurocopter AS-355F1

Aircraft type
Eurocopter AS-355
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
N5871D
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Meadows Field (BFL), Bakersfield, CATo not recorded
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 91: General Aviation
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
Approach · VFR pattern final
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
Loss of control in flight
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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Go-around, not performed
  • Pilot in command › Proper descent rate, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
  • Pilot in command › Visual/aural detection

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

ON A DARK MOONLESS NIGHT, THE FLIGHT WAS GOING TO A SPARSELY POPULATED AREA WITHOUT GROUND REFERENCE LIGHTS TO PICKUP A MEDICAL EVACUATION PATIENT. THE RESPONDING FIRE DEPARTMENT TRUCKS PICKED A LANDING SITE AND ILLUMINATED THE AREA WITH TWO FIRE TRUCKS PARKED ADJACENT TO THE INTENDED LANDING SPOT. THE PILOT SAID HE MADE A HIGH RECONNISANACE AND THEN STARTED HIS APPROACH FROM 300 FEET. HE SAID HE BECAME SPATIALLY DISORIENTED AND LOST VISUAL REFERENCE WITH THE GROUND WHILE LOOKING AT HIS INSTRUMENTS TO CORRECT A HIGH RATE OF DESCENT AND LOW AIRSPEED SITUATION. THE HELICOPTER'S NOSE PITCHED DOWN, BUT THE PILOT STABILIZED THE AIRCRAFT JUST BEFORE TOUCHING DOWN HARD. THE AIRCRAFT BOUNCED INTO THE AIR ABOUT 20-30 FEET, ROLLED TO THE LEFT IN AN UNCONTROLLED DESCENT, AND THEN COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND ON ITS LEFT SIDE. THE HELICOPTER SPUN AND ROLLED OVER AND CAME TO REST ON THE RIGHT SIDE. THE PILOT REPORTED NO MECHANICAL FAILURES OR MALFUNCTIONS.

Probable cause

the pilot's in-flight loss of control and failure to maintain a proper descent rate due to spatial disorientation and lack of visual cues during a dark, night approach to a unimproved landing zone, and his failure to initiate a go-around when he first lost visual reference with the ground. Factor's in the accident are the dark night lighting conditions and lack of suitable reference lights at the landing zone.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX95LA200
Event ID
20001207X03502
Case number
LAX95LA200
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 1995-06-01.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 73f1e420ea82fbcb8ec4d25bb2e2e295e8be87cbe290f36e0c92ae757426541f; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:53:43.855Z.