LAX99GA216 · Hughes OH-6A
Hughes OH-6A · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Sells Airport (E78) to Teniente Benjamín Matienzo International Airport (TUC)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX99GA216
- 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
Hughes OH-6A
- Aircraft type
- Hughes OH-6
- 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
- N6187C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sells Airport (E78), Sells, AZTo Teniente Benjamín Matienzo International Airport (TUC)
- 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Fuel consumption calculations, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was on short final approach to land when he reported an engine failure. He attempted to stretch his glide to avoid buildings and cars on the ground; however, the helicopter struck railroad tracks next to the field boundary. Damage to the main rotor blades was consistent with a low rotor rpm at impact. The pilot did not recall how much time had elapsed since his last refueling. Examination of the navigation and fuel endurance log from the helicopter cockpit (required by the operator) showed the pilot had not completed the fuel endurance calculations at the time of last fueling. The helicopter was equipped with a main fuel system and an auxiliary fuel system. A deferred maintenance item, 'main fuel gauge unreliable in forward flight,' was still open. The same discrepancy had also been entered previously and it, too, had not been cleared. The auxiliary fuel gauge was entered as inoperative on the deferred maintenance log with 'parts on order' but had not been cleared at the time of the accident. The pilot last recalled reading approximately 78 pounds on the main fuel gauge. He did not recall seeing the 20-minute light illuminate before the accident. A check of the low fuel warning system found that float arm contact in the fuel cell occurred at 34 pounds, which approximates 20 minutes of usable fuel; no discrepancies were found in the operation of the system. No evidence of a fuel spill was found around or under the wreckage. The crashworthy main fuel cell was uncompromised and about 12 ounces of trapped fuel was found. No fuel was found in the auxiliary fuel tank. The light bulbs for the 'Engine Out, Fuel Low, and Master Caution' were removed for examination. One 'Master Caution' bulb showed a small amount of filament stretching, consistent with hot stretching from a light to moderate impact force. The filaments of both 'Fuel Low' bulbs were intact and unstretched, consistent with bulbs not being illuminated during a light to moderate impact. The filaments from both 'Engine Out' bulbs showed a small amount of stretching, again consistent with hot stretching from light to moderate impact. There were no other discrepancies found with the engine or engine-related systems.
Probable cause
Fuel exhaustion resulting from pilot's failure to perform adequate fuel consumption calculations. The unreliable and inoperative fuel level indicating system components and the operator's operation of the aircraft with known deficiencies were factors in the accident.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX99GA216
- Event ID
- 20001212X19020
- Case number
- LAX99GA216
- 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: 72291adf0ef72de99ce67662bc9062aef716430d92780d14f995be916e25bc0b; retrieved 2026-09-21T10:59:58.721Z.