LAX98LA089 · Hiller UH-12E
Hiller UH-12E · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while maneuvering
From CA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX98LA089
- 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
- N4027Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From CATo 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)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Fuel exhaustion
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During an aerial application flight over an orchard at 40 feet above ground level, the pilot experienced a total loss of engine power. Unable to enter an autorotation due to the low altitude, the pilot landed hard in an open field, and the helicopter was substantially damaged. An examination of the helicopter revealed it was out of fuel. According to the pilot, prior to the mishap the fuel quantity gage had indicated 12 gallons remained in the tank, and evidently the fuel float had become stuck in the tank. The FAA coordinator reported that the conditions which may have produced the discrepancy could not be duplicated during the postimpact testing. However, during the examination when the fuel quantity sender arm was manipulated the float could be induced to hang up vertically. Then, when lowered to the bottom of the tank, the fuel quantity would read 12 gallons. All other system circuitry and component tests were negative. No specific mechanical defect was established.
Probable cause
Fuel exhaustion due to the pilot's failure to ensure that an adequate fuel supply was onboard. A contributing factor was related to the fuel quantity gage's erroneous indication of fuel.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX98LA089
- Event ID
- 20001211X09571
- Case number
- LAX98LA089
- 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: 836e1d95e674777577de0a3a7f24cdd68c96ff1c5d8f96e540cbbfe22e5518c0; retrieved 2026-09-22T18:02:30.782Z.