ANC91FA001 · Hughes 500D
Hughes 500D · Accident: roll over during takeoff
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC91FA001
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 500D
- Aircraft type
- Hughes 500
- 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
- N1107G
- Operator
- Unknown
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Roll over
- 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
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND WAS UNABLE TO FIND A FLAT SPOT TO SET THE HELICOPTER ON TO PICK UP HIS PASSENGERS. HE NOSED THE HELICOPTER INTO THE SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN AND MAINTAINED THE AFT PORTION OF THE SKIDS AT A HOVER. THE PASSENGERS LOADED THEMSELVES AND WERE STRAPPED IN WHEN THE PILOT BEGAN HIS TAKEOFF. HE APPLIED POWER AND THE HELICOPTER BEGAN SETTLING AFT. HE CONTINUED TO APPLY POWER AND THE HELICOPTER ROLLED OVER ONTO ITS LEFT SIDE AND TURNED 90 DEGREES TO ITS LEFT. THE PILOT DID NOT RECALL HEARING AN ENGINE-OUT WARNING AND THE CIRCUIT BREAKER WAS FOUND IN THE OUT POSITION. EXAMINATION OF THE HELICOPTER AND TEST RUN OF THE ENGINE SHOWED NO REASON FOR A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER OR MECHANICAL FAILURE. THE TERRAIN WAS UNEVEN AND VERY ROCKY.
Probable cause
THE LOSS OF CONTROL DURING TAKEOFF DUE TO DYNAMIC ROLLOVER. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S SELECTION OF AN UNEVEN LANDING AREA.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC91FA001
- Event ID
- 20001212X24392
- Case number
- ANC91FA001
- 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: 654b99b1c9ecbb2f1ee698eac01d456aedcf60c16c693baa926ec96d16657982; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:58:57.822Z.