ATL92FA126 · Aerospatiale AS-355-F
Omniflight Helicopters Aerospatiale AS-355-F · Accident: fire/explosion en route
From ND92 · Durham, NC to Lumberton, NC (no airport)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL92FA126
- 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
Aerospatiale AS-355-F
- Aircraft type
- Aerospatiale AS-355
- 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
- N365DU
- Operator
- Omniflight Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From ND92 · Durham, NCTo Lumberton, NC (no airport)
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Fire/explosion
- 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
- Engine assembly, bearing › Failure, total
- Fuel system, drain › Leak
- Lubricating system, oil line › Blocked(total)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIR AMBULANCE HELICOPTER WAS ENROUTE TO PICK UP A PATIENT WHEN THE PILOT OBSERVED THE ENGINE FIRE LIGHT ILLUMINATE, FOLLOWED BY SMOKE ENTERING THE CABIN AREA. THE FLIGHT CREW EXECUTED AN EMERGENCY LANDING AT THE NEARBY SIMMONS ARMY AIRFIELD AT FORT BRAGG, NORTH CAROLINA. EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT THE OIL SUPPLY LINE FOR THE BEARING WAS BLOCKED WITH CARBON AND THE REAR BEARING IN THE NUMBER THREE MODULE HAD FAILED. THE ENGINE START FUEL VALVE BEGAN LEAKING FUEL AS A RESULT OF LOSS OF TORQUE ON CONNECTING BOLTS DUE TO ENGINE VIBRATION. THE START FUEL VALVE WAS LOCATED DIRECTLY ABOVE THE ENGINE STARTER/GENERATOR. THERE HAD BEEN AN EXTENSIVE FIRE IN THE NUMBER ONE ENGINE COMPARTMENT ORIGINATING IN THE AREA OF THE STARTER/GENERATOR.
Probable cause
THE TOTAL BLOCKAGE OF THE OIL SUPPLY LINE FOR THE REAR MAIN BEARING IN ENGINE MODULE THREE WHICH RESULTED IN THE FAILURE OF THE BEARING, AND THE SUBSEQUENT LEAK FROM THE ENGINE START DRAIN VALVE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL92FA126
- Event ID
- 20001211X14764
- Case number
- ATL92FA126
- 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: e25c2783fc2a86a879323b0a0dadc20a2b0419617999fd6786685e859e81ca3a; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:03:04.653Z.