DEN00LA069 · Hawkins & Powers UH-1B
Hawkins & Powers UH-1B · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) while maneuvering
From Helper, UT (no airport) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN00LA069
- 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
Hawkins & Powers UH-1B
- Aircraft type
- Hawkins Powers UH-1
- 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
- N50330
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Helper, UT (no airport)To 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 133: Rotorcraft Ext. Load
- 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
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Engine assembly, bearing › Failure, total
- Lubricating system › Flow restricted
- Lubricating system, oil filter/screen › Foreign object
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
As the helicopter approached logging personnel with a 150 foot long line, the pilot heard a 'Shhhh' sound and was advised smoke was coming from the engine. He turned and proceeded down the mountain. The engine then 'quit.' The helicopter collided with heavily wooded steep terrain. The number 1 and 2 bearings were submitted for metallurgical examination. The metallurgical report stated that 'the most likely cause of [the] engine malfunction was degradation of the Position #1 bearing due to insufficient lubrication.' All other damage appeared to be 'secondary.' The accessory carrier assembly was oil flow tested and found to be 'acceptable,' albeit 'near the lower end of requirements.' Debris in the bearing oil strainer was believed to be 'coked oil and epoxy hardener, both unusual for this area of the engine.'
Probable cause
Total failure of the number 1 bearing due to lack of lubrication, the oil flow being restricted by a foreign object (epoxy hardener). Factors were trees and the unavailability of suitable terrain for a forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN00LA069
- Event ID
- 20001212X20798
- Case number
- DEN00LA069
- 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: daebb5b07b2b37b839bc5e79d5e02ad2bdc65a2d6afdd66a06d71dd420dad3ed; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:16:34.652Z.