DEN93FA033 · Hiller UH-12E
Croman Hiller UH-12E · Accident: in flight encounter with weather during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN93FA033
- 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
- 3 · 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
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
- N5344V
- Operator
- Croman
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, initiated
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER LANDED ON A MOUNTAINSIDE HELIPAD WHERE TWO PASSENGERS WERE WAITING. THE PILOT OF A SIKORSKY S 61 HELICOPTER FLYING NEARBY CAUTIONED HIM ABOUT CLOUDS MOVING UP THE VALLEY. HE ALSO NOTED IT WAS QUITE WINDY AND TURBULENT. THE PILOT REPLIED HE WAS AWARE OF THE APPROACHING CLOUDS AND THAT IT WAS BAD. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, THE SIKORSKY PILOT HEARD THE HILLER PILOT SAY, I LOST IT. THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES AND ONE PADDLE WERE FOUND IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO THE HELICOPTER; THE OTHER PADDLE WAS LOCATED 300 FEET AWAY. EXAMINATION OF THE MAIN ROTOR HEAD DISCLOSED DAMAGE BETWEEN THE HUB STATIC STOPS AND THE MAIN ROTOR MAST. METALLURGICAL EXAMINATION OF THE FRACTURED SURFACES INDICATED ALL THE BREAKS WERE THE RESULT OF OVERLOAD FORCES.
Probable cause
THE PILOT INITIATING FLIGHT INTO KNOWN ADVERSE WEATHER. FACTORS WERE: LOW CEILING, FOG, AND TURBULENCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN93FA033
- Event ID
- 20001211X11966
- Case number
- DEN93FA033
- 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: bf51e95efb711ed7b1cfd2237afe2e1038b9df828741f26ec05a5701969bf550; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:39:41.360Z.