LAX95LA282 · Aerospatiale AS-355-F1
Aerospatiale AS-355-F1 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while standing
From an unrecorded airport to John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA282
- 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
Aerospatiale AS-355-F1
- Aircraft type
- Aerospatiale 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
- N813CE
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA), Santa Ana, 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 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
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Manufacturer › Procedure inadequate
- Rotor system, star flex arm › Failure, total
- Rotor system, star flex arm › Fatigue
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER ENTERED GROUND RESONANCE BEFORE LIFT-OFF. THE PILOT WAS ABLE TO STOP THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES BEFORE THEY STRUCK THE GROUND. WRECKAGE EXAMINATION SHOWED THAT ALL OF THE HELICOPTER COMPONENTS THAT COULD CAUSE GROUND RESONANCE WERE SERVICEABLE. EXAMINATION OF THE BROKEN STARFLEX YELLOW ARM DISCLOSED THAT IT FRACTURED DUE TO FATIGUE IN AN AREA WHERE PREVIOUS REPAIRS HAVE BEEN MADE, AND THAT ITS POROSITY LEVEL WAS HIGH. FATIGUE WAS ALSO FOUND IN THE RED ARM, ALSO IN A PREVIOUSLY REPAIRED AREA. MAINTENANCE RECORDS SHOWED THAT ALL THE STARFLEX ARMS RECEIVED A TEMPORARY REPAIR 4 MONTHS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. THE REPAIR IN THE RED ARM DID NOT CONFORM TO THE TEMPORARY REPAIR PROCEDURE. EXAMINATION OF THE FULL REPAIR WAS NEVER ACCOMPLISHED, NOR WAS IT REQUIRED UNTIL THE ROTOR MAST WAS TO BE REMOVED FOR OTHER SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE. THE MAINTENANCE MANUAL DOES NOT SPECIFY THE TIME WHEN THE TEMPORARY REPAIR OF THE STARFLEX ARM SHOULD BE FULLY REPAIRED. THE MANUFACTURER'S REPRESENTATIVES STATE THAT THE FULL REPAIR SHOULD BE MADE WHEN THE ROTOR HEAD IS REMOVED FOR SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE.
Probable cause
the failure of the Starflex arm due to fatigue, and the manufacturer's inadequate maintenance procedure. The operator's maintenance personnel failure to understand the repair procedure was a factor in the accident.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA282
- Event ID
- 20001207X04280
- Case number
- LAX95LA282
- 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: ef11f97682388e4463cdb50c41b27c4b28b97a1ed1c053adaae54accdcff7925; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:28:58.631Z.