CHI95LA202 · Hiller UH-12E
Hiller UH-12E · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while maneuvering
From Ulysses Airport (ULS) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI95LA202
- 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
- N1349A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ulysses Airport (ULS), Ulysses, KSTo 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 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel system, drain › Leak
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
IN HIS WRITTEN STATEMENT, THE PILOT REPORTED THAT HE VISUALLY CHECKED THE FUEL LEVEL DURING HIS MORNING PREFLIGHT. HE REPORTED THAT HE USES A STOP WATCH TO BACK UP THE FUEL QUANTITY GAUGE AND USUALLY HAS TWO HOURS AND TWENTY FIVE MINUTES OF USABLE FUEL. HE HAD FLOWN 2 HOURS AND 1.5 MINUTES PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT AND ESTIMATED HE WOULD NORMALLY HAVE 10 OR 11 GALLONS OF USABLE FUEL. HE STATED THAT HE WAS IN A RAVINE WHEN THE ENGINE LOST POWER. HE 'USED SOME OF THE ROTOR RPM TO GET AWAY FROM THE RAVINE ON TO AN AREA WITHOUT ROCKS AND TREES.' HE FLARED AND LOWERED THE COLLECTIVE. DURING THE LANDING, A MAIN ROTOR BLADE IMPACTED THE TAIL BOOM. HE REPORTED THAT THE FUEL QUANTITY GAUGE INDICATED 40 POUNDS WHEN HE SHUT OFF THE MASTER SWITCH. A FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA) INSPECTOR REPORTED THAT THE DRAIN VALVE IN THE MAIN FUEL SUMP WAS LEAKING. THE FUEL QUANTITY INDICATOR DISPLAYED 'LOW, NOT EMPTY'. NO OTHER EVIDENCE OF PREIMPACT MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION WAS REPORTED.
Probable cause
the leaking drain in the main fuel sump. Factors to the accident were the incorrect fuel indication, the ravine, fuel exhaustion, and the low rotor RPM.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI95LA202
- Event ID
- 20001207X03681
- Case number
- CHI95LA202
- 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: 98390f0002720484fe98e0bca56b5c5709426bd3e3c7210416117b080fade348; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:45:25.567Z.