LAX92FA025 · Aerospatiale AS350B
Lone Eagle Aviation Aerospatiale AS350B · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From Scottsdale Airport (SDL) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92FA025
- 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
Aerospatiale AS350B
- Aircraft type
- Aerospatiale AS350
- 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
- N9001S
- Operator
- Lone Eagle Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Scottsdale Airport (SDL), Scottsdale, AZTo 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 · hover
- 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
- 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
- Hydraulic system › Locked
- Hydraulic system › Undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CERTIFICATED COMMERCIAL PILOT/CERTIFIED FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR WAS CONDUCTING TRAINING WITH A SECOND PILOT IN HELICOPTER EMERGENCY PROCEDURES, THAT INCLUDED HYRAULICS OFF LANDINGS. ON THE THIRD LANDING WITHOUT HYRAULIC BOOST PRESSURE, AT AN AIRSPEED OF ABOUT 2 KNOTS AND A SKID HEIGHT OF ABOUT 1 FOOT, THE HELICOPTER BEGAN AN UNCOMMANDED TURN TO THE LEFT. THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO COUNTER THE TURN BUT WAS UNABLE TO MOVE THE FLIGHT CONTROLS. THE HELICOPTER'S LEFT BANK ANGLE, NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE AND LEFT TURN CONTINUED UNTIL THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES STRUCK THE GROUND. THE LEFT FRONT PORTION OF THE FUSELAGE AND SKID TUBE THEN STRUCK THE GROUND. AN EXAMINATION OF THE HYDRAULIC SYSTEM, INCLUDING DISASSEMBLY OF THE MAIN ROTOR CONTROL SERVOS, FAILED TO LOCATE THE CAUSE OF THE MALFUNCTION. THIS IS THE SECOND RPTD HYD OFF FLT CONTROL SEIZURE THAT RESULTED IN AN ACCIDENT. THE FLT CREW OF BOTH HELICOPTERS WERE WELL QUALIFIED.
Probable cause
AN UNDETERMINED MALFUNCTION OF THE HYDRAULIC SYSTEM IN WHICH THE SYSTEM WAS LOCKED, PREVENTING THE MOVEMENT OF THE FLIGHT CONTROLS, AND LOSS OF DIRECTIONAL CONTROL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92FA025
- Event ID
- 20001212X18309
- Case number
- LAX92FA025
- 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: 2875076b34691a75cfb8475a88e8799c7f9ebdb6b944e5a13c2cdc17ca3c917b; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:24:01.225Z.