SEA92LA189 · Hiller UH-12C
Hiller UH-12C · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From an unrecorded airport to Seaplane Landing Area Seaplane Base (WA13)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA92LA189
- 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-12C
- 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
- N37667
- Operator
- Westlund, Jack M. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Seaplane Landing Area Seaplane Base (WA13)
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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 › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Proper touchdown point, not selected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT ENGINE LOST POWER ON DOWNWIND IN THE TRAFFIC PATTERN FOR LANDING AND THE PILOT INITIATED A FORCED LANDING IN AN OPEN PASTURE. THE ACFT TOUCHED DOWN ON UNEVEN TERRAIN AND ROLLED OVER. A POST ACCIDENT EXAM OF THE ACFT FUEL TANKS REVEALED LESS THAN ONE QUART OF FUEL REMAINING.
Probable cause
THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION, RESULTING FROM THE IMPR0PER IN-FLIGHT PLANNING BY THE PILOT IN COMMAND AND HIS FAILURE TO SELECT A PROPER TOUCHDOWN POINT FOR AN EMERGENCY FORCED LANDING. A FACTOR RELATING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE UNEVEN TERRAIN AT THE TOUCHDOWN POINT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA92LA189
- Event ID
- 20001211X15546
- Case number
- SEA92LA189
- 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: 4a4e9d7e08fbcfa8c8b146291885e6121dbb24fa4913ae53b43b734ab52fabf3; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:09:11.984Z.