LAX97LA133 · Enstrom F-28C
Enstrom F-28C · Accident during initial climb
From Polacca Airport (P10) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX97LA133
- 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
Enstrom F-28C
- Aircraft type
- Enstrom F-28
- 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
- N294SB
- Operator
- Steve Bates
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Polacca Airport (P10), Chandler, AZTo 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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(cfi) › Collective, improper use of
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Rotor RPM, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Sacaton, AZ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
During a confined area takeoff, the aircraft passed through effective translational lift (ETL) when the pilot noticed a reduction in engine noise. Both the engine and rotor rpm needles were still joined at a position just below the bottom of the green arc. He lowered collective and rolled the throttle full on without obtaining an increase in engine rpm. He initiated a straight-in autorotation, and during the ground slide, a skid contacted a rock and the tail boom yawed. The tail boom then struck a tree and separated from the aircraft. The main rotor drive belt was disconnected and a run-up check was performed the engine. The engine ran throughout the normal operating range and magneto checks were within tolerances. The engine air cleaner was removed and exhibited trapped dirt and grass.
Probable cause
the pilot's improper use of the collective by not maintaining rotor rpm during takeoff from a confined area.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX97LA133
- Event ID
- 20001208X07585
- Case number
- LAX97LA133
- 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: 3aaae8e1484b4ea9e2ba2a12c69fdb1434aefd0fbe7043164180b730c2fce76d; retrieved 2026-09-22T20:06:45.565Z.