FTW97LA356 · Sikorsky S-76A
Sikorsky S-76A · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during takeoff
From Harry P Williams Memorial Airport (PTN) to Tensas Flying Service Airport (LA53)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW97LA356
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Sikorsky S-76A
- Aircraft type
- Sikorsky S-76
- 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
- N517AL
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Harry P Williams Memorial Airport (PTN)To Tensas Flying Service Airport (LA53), GRAND CHENIER, LA
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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
- Copilot/second pilot › Descent, inadvertent
- Copilot/second pilot › Proper climb rate, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the initial takeoff climb at night in fog, the copilot, who was the pilot flying, allowed the helicopter to enter a descent. The pilot-in-command (PIC) was adjusting the instrument lights at the copilot's request, and did not realize the helicopter was descending until it was approximately 100 feet above the ground. The PIC attempted to arrest the descent, but was unable to do so before the helicopter settled into a crop of sugar cane. After the helicopter 'plowed a path' through the crop, it briefly became airborne, then contacted the ground and came to a stop resting on its right side.
Probable cause
failure of the copilot to maintain a positive rate of climb after takeoff, which led to an inadvertent descent and collision with a crop of sugar cane and the ground. Factors relating to the accident were: darkness, fog, and the pilot-in-command's inadequate monitoring of the copilot, when he diverted his attention to adjusting the instrument lights.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW97LA356
- Event ID
- 20001208X08851
- Case number
- FTW97LA356
- 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: 93005b3e8033df7af45d760cc3c7500f2dd1a92c721b54083cbf7312bfa9622f; retrieved 2026-09-21T11:48:11.333Z.