ANC96FA098 · Sikorsky CH-54A
Sikorsky CH-54A · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From SHELTER COVE, AK to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC96FA098
- 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
- 1 · 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
Sikorsky CH-54A
- Aircraft type
- Sikorsky CH-54
- 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
- N541SB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From SHELTER COVE, AKTo 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 133: Rotorcraft Ext. Load
- 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 · hover out of ground effect
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Rotor drive system, tail rotor drive shaft bearing › Failure
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot & copilot were on an external load, aero logging operation in a military surplus helicopter, lifting an estimated load of 18,000 lbs. Ground personnel heard a popping sound, then saw the tailrotor begin to slow down as the helicopter began to yaw/spin. It descended to sloping terrain in an area of cut logs. Postcrash exam of the tailrotor drive shaft revealed a separation at the number 5 bearing position. The shaft separation exhibited evidence of high heat & melting of adjoining shaft surfaces. The bearing & its housing were not recovered. The bearing had accrued 505 hrs of service, & was 1 of 2 bearing model numbers that were in use. The bearing was manufactured in 1991, & was purchased by the operator from surplus military supplies. The supplier (of the bearing to the operator) had performed an exterior exam of the bearing & marked 'relubed 10/95' on the bearing box. Exam of the remaining tailrotor drive shaft bearings revealed evidence of low grease fill, water & glycol contamination, & wear patterns consistent with misalignment. In civilian service, the bearing was an 'on condition' part. The operator established a service life of 1,000 hours for aero logging operations. A shelf life for the bearing was not established. The manufacturer indicated the bearing should support a 5 year shelf life. Other operators of the accident helicopter in aero logging reported similar examples of low grease fill & bearing contamination from water in both available models of bearing.
Probable cause
failure of the number 5 tailrotor bearing. A factor relating to the accident was: the uneven/steep sloping terrain, where the pilot was forced to land. Possible factors were: inadequate handling/labeling of the 'relubed' bearing by intermediate supplyier(s), and/or insufficient shelf life/service limits for military surplus parts.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC96FA098
- Event ID
- 20001208X06129
- Case number
- ANC96FA098
- 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: baabc2f59c8b16dc0c9b1d0f723a4c4409a84e140437bb473506b7278e3ba543; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:16:59.909Z.