NYC92GA147 · Sikorsky S-76A
Sikorsky S-76A · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Capital City Airport (FFT) to Godman Army Air Field (FTK)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC92GA147
- 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
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
- N50KY
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Capital City Airport (FFT), Frankfort, KYTo Godman Army Air Field (FTK), FT KNOX, KY
- 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
- 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
- Aircraft preflight › Inadequate
- Engine compartment › Not secured
- Rotor drive system, tail rotor drive shaft › Failure, total
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
BEFORE FLT, THE COPLT BGN A PREFLT INSPN, & SUBSEQUENTLY, THE HELICOPTER WAS MVD FM THE HANGAR TO THE TERMINAL, WHERE A WITNESS OBSERVED THE ENG COWLING OPEN. THE PLT ALSO MADE A WALKAROUND VISUAL INSPN OF THE HELICOPTER BFR FLT. NEITHER OF THE FLTCREW NOTED ANY DISCREPANCY. ABT 1 MIN & 40 SEC AFTER TAKEOFF, THE FLT CREW HEARD A NOISE, FLWD BY LOSS OF DRCTNL CTL; 3 OF THE PSGRS NOTED THE ODOR OF SOMETHING OVERHEATING. AN AUTOROTATION & LANDING WERE MADE ON HILLY TRRN, WHERE THE HELICOPTER CAME TO REST IN A RAVINE AGAINST A TREE. DRG AN EXAM, THE 2 LEFT SIDE ENG COWLING LATCHES WERE FND OPEN; ALSO, THE LEFT SIDE OF THE AFT ENG COWLING WAS OPEN. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT DURING FLT, THE LEFT SIDE OF THE COWLING CONTACTED THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES; THE COWLING THEN MADE CONTACT WITH SECTION II OF THE TAIL ROTOR DRIVESHAFT. FRICTION BTN THE COWLING & THE DRIVESHAFT RESULTED IN LOCALIZED HIGH TEMPERATURE & THE TAIL ROTOR SHAFT FAILED AT THAT LOCATION. ONE OF THE 4 TAIL ROTOR BLADES SEPARATED DURING THE OCCURRENCE.
Probable cause
AN INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT INSPECTION BY THE FLIGHT CREW BY FAILING TO ASSURE THAT ALL FOUR OF THE ENGINE COWLING LATCHES WERE PROPERLY SECURED, WHICH RESULTED IN SUBSEQUENT FAILURE OF SECTION II OF THE TAIL ROTOR DRIVESHAFT AFTER THE COWLING CONTACTED THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES AND TAIL ROTOR DRIVESHAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC92GA147
- Event ID
- 20001211X15488
- Case number
- NYC92GA147
- 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: d23210424fb87d362666d947824fa6393b7e7012dc3668e3bef22f4962bd2434; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:49:14.122Z.