Petroleum Helicopters Sikorsky S76A accident
Sikorsky S76A · Accident: in flight collision with object during landing
From SHIP SHOAL 209A, GM (no airport) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW91LA098
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 S76A
- Aircraft type
- Sikorsky S76
- 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
- N5418N
- Operator
- Petroleum Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From SHIP SHOAL 209A, GM (no airport)To 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Landing · aborted
- 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 collision with object
- 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
- Copilot/second pilot › Powerplant controls, improper use of
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
DURING A LANDING AT AN OFF SHORE OIL RIG THE PILOT IN COMMAND (PIC) ALLOWED THE HELICOPTER TO DRIFT AND PLACED THE RIGHT MAIN GEAR OFF THE PLATFORM ONTO THE SAFETY APRON. THE PIC UNSUCCESSFULLY ATTEMPTED TWO REPOSITIONING MANEUVERS AND THEN DECIDED TO TAKEOFF AND LAND AGAIN. DURING THE TAKEOFF FROM A HOVER THE PIC APPLIED INCREASED COLLECTIVE. THE HELICOPTER RESPONDED BY TURNING RIGHT AROUND ITS VERTICAL AXIS. THE CO-PILOT (CP) INTERPRETERED THE RIGHT TURN AS A LOSS OF DIRECTIONAL CONTROL, SO HE BROUGHT BOTH ENGINES OFF LINE BY REDUCING THE SPEED LEVERS TO GROUND IDLE. THE ACTION OF THE CP WAS TAKEN WITHOUT COORDINATION OR ANNOUNCEMENT TO HIS PIC. THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES STRUCK THE PLATFORM AND THE HELICOPTER DESCENDED UNCONTROLLED TO THE WATER. NO MECHANICAL MALFUNCTIONS WERE DISCOVERED.
Probable cause
THE COPILOT'S REDUCTION OF POWER TO GROUND IDLE ON BOTH ENGINES. FACTORS WERE THE PILOT'S POOR LANDING TECHNIQUE AND HIS FAILURE TO ESTABLISH ADEQUATE CREW COORDINATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW91LA098
- Event ID
- 20001212X17268
- Case number
- FTW91LA098
- 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: 2fd0c25557fbd26d308ee0f364f3073ec997eb26aa2b8de8da0896f2934deef9; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:54:30.040Z.