LAX92LA146 · Hiller UH-12E
Huron Ag Helicopters Hiller UH-12E · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA146
- 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
- N93478
- Operator
- Huron Ag Helicopters
- 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 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
- 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
- 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
- Rotorcraft flight control › Fatigue
- Rotorcraft flight control › Separation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT EXPERIENCED A SUDDEN VIOLENT MAIN ROTOR VIBRATION WHILE ON A SPRAY RUN OVER AN ORCHARD. WHILE MANEUVERING AT ABOUT 12 FEET ABOVE THE TREE TOPS, ONE OF THE CONTROL ROTOR BLADE ASSEMBLIES SEPARATED FROM THE ROTOR HUB. AN EXAMINATION OF THE SEPARATED CONTROL ROTOR ASSEMBLY REVEALED A FATIGUE CRACK THAT ORIGINATED AT THE ROTOR CUFF RETAINING BOLT HOLE. THE CONTROL ROTOR CUFF IS THE SUBJECT OF A 100-HOUR RECURRING INSPECTION AS A RESULT OF AN AIRWORTHINESS DIRECTIVE (AD). THE AD WAS COMPLIED WITH DURING THE LAST 100-HOUR INSPECTION. THE CUFF HAD ACCUMULATED 88.8 HOURS OF SERVICE SINCE THE LAST 100-HOUR INSPECTION.
Probable cause
A SEPARATION OF THE CONTROL ROTOR CUFF DUE TO FATIGUE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA146
- Event ID
- 20001211X14321
- Case number
- LAX92LA146
- 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: 7046d5948cfc64b596fc9fb9632ed1df6c60bb9905b7e9bfae2319a64975110e; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:17:45.956Z.