LAX91LA388 · Texas Helicopter M74
Ag Air Texas Helicopter M74 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91LA388
- 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
- 1 · 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
Texas Helicopter M74
- Aircraft type
- Texas M74
- 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
- N43921
- Operator
- Ag-Air
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER THE HELICOPTER WAS RELOADED WITH 500 LBS OF SULFUR, THE PILOT TOOK OFF & DEPARTED TO THE NORTHWEST AT AN ALTITUDE OF ABOUT 100 FT TO CONTINUE THE APPLICATION MISSION. THE GROUND CREW REPORTED THAT SHORTLY AFTER DEPARTURE, THE ENGINE BACKFIRED SEVERAL TIMES & THE HELICOPTER BEGAN SETTLING TAIL FIRST TO THE GROUND. GROUND CONTACT SEPARATED THE TAIL BOOM FROM THE HELICOPTER & IT ROTATED TO THE LEFT. THE SKIDS SEPARATED & THE RIGHT SULFUR TANK RUPTURED. A SULFUR FIRE ERUPTED. THE PILOT EXITED THE COCKPIT ON THE RIGHT SIDE & WAS STRUCK BY THE MAIN ROTOR. THE HELICOPTER WAS LOADED 69 LBS OVER ITS MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE GROSS WEIGHT. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OF THE HELICOPTER OR ENGINE WAS FOUND. TESTS OF THE PILOT'S BLOOD SHOWED 0.009 UG/ML OF 11-NOR-DELTA-9-TETRAHYRDROCANNABINOL & 0.012 UG/ML OF 11-NOR-DELTA-9-THC-9-CARBOXYLIC ACID. A TEST OF HIS URINE DETECTED 0.129 UG/ML OF 11-NOR-DELTA-9-CARBOXYLIC ACID.
Probable cause
LOSS OF ENGINE POWER FOR AN UNDETERMINED REASON. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE EXCESSIVE GROSS WEIGHT OF THE HELICOPTER, AND THE PILOT'S IMPROPER USE OF FLIGHT CONTROLS DUE TO IMPAIRMENT FROM USE OF A DRUG (MARIJUANNA).
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91LA388
- Event ID
- 20001212X18118
- Case number
- LAX91LA388
- 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: 4ff1e166d01bc0191b28bece782a0fe6c8d3aab777b60e2e62d704f673aa634d; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:35:26.251Z.