LAX00LA118 · Arrow Aircraft Co. OH-58A
Arrow Aircraft Co. OH-58A · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Cliff Hatfield Memorial Airport (CLR) to Cliff Hatfield Memorial Airport (CLR)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX00LA118
- 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
Arrow Aircraft Co. OH-58A
- Aircraft type
- Arrow OH-58
- 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
- N39FA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cliff Hatfield Memorial Airport (CLR), Calipatria, CATo Cliff Hatfield Memorial Airport (CLR), Calipatria, CA
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fuel system, fuel shutoff › Closed
- Pilot in command › Adequate rotor RPM, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Cyclic, used
- Pilot in command › Fuel boost pump selector position, not corrected
- Rotorcraft flight control › Deteriorated
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter took off to the south and began a climb. Upon reaching about 60 feet above the ground, the helicopter lost power. At this time the helicopter was approaching power lines and the pilot used cyclic to climb over them. After clearing the wires, the pilot attempted an autorotative landing but there was insufficient main rotor speed to cushion the landing. The helicopter impacted the ground and the main rotor flexed severing the tail boom.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate checklist procedure prior to departure, which did not verify the fuel selector was in the proper position for flight, and the pilot's failure to maintain adequate main rotor speed for an autorotative landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX00LA118
- Event ID
- 20001212X20669
- Case number
- LAX00LA118
- 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, coordinates. 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: af78d5076f83f01a0c22ba4340d0e2f0531760bef232304c1e2d432f4334ad11; retrieved 2026-09-21T10:41:44.052Z.