MIA91LA220 · Continental Copters TOMCAT MK5A TOMCAT MK5
Gulf Helicopter Continental Copters TOMCAT MK5A TOMCAT MK5 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA91LA220
- 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
Continental Copters TOMCAT MK5A TOMCAT MK5
- Aircraft type
- Continental Copters TOMCAT MK5A
- 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
- N9010T
- Operator
- Gulf Helicopter
- 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 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
- Maneuvering · aerial application
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT STATED THAT DURING A STEEP TURN ABOUT 60 FT AGL, THE ENG SPUTTERED. HE REDUCED POWER AND ATTEMPTED TO LAND IN A CLEARING BUT THE ENG QUIT SHORTLY THEREAFTER. DURING THE AUTOROTATIVE DESCENT, THE MAIN ROTOR (M R) BLADES CONTACTED TREES. AFTER TOUCHDOWN ON THE GROUND, THE M R BLADES CONTACTED THE TAIL BOOM. THE PLT WAS OBSERVED AFTER THE ACCIDENT TO LOOK IN THE FUEL TANK. THE HELICOPTER WAS MOVED AFTER THE ACCIDENT WITHOUT NTSB OR FAA PERMISSION; THEREFORE, FUEL QUANTITY COULD NOT BE DETERMINED. THE HELICOPTER WAS LOCATED AND EXAM OF THE ENG AND ITS COMPONENTS REVEALED CONTAMINANTS IN THE CARBURETOR BOWL. THE ENG WAS STARTED AND FOUND TO OPERATE NORMALLY. NO DETERMINATION COULD BE MADE AS TO THE REASON FOR THE LOSS OF ENG POWER.
Probable cause
TOTAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO UNDETERMINED REASONS. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS UNSUITABLE TERRAIN ENCOUNTERED DURING THE FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA91LA220
- Event ID
- 20001212X18148
- Case number
- MIA91LA220
- 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: dc01d89a2eab064230949767529e0b6a2da8646bea3257e16980dbd51c63ae8b; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:41:19.268Z.