FTW88LA075 · Aerospatiale AS-355-F1
ERA Helicopters Aerospatiale AS-355-F1 · Accident: dragged wing, rotor, pod, float or tail/skid during landing
From F67 to F67
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW88LA075
- 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 AS-355-F1
- Aircraft type
- Aerospatiale AS-355
- 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
- N5800F
- Operator
- Era Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From F67To F67
- 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
- Landing · aborted
- 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
- Dragged wing, rotor, pod, float or tail/skid
- 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
- Dual student › Rotorcraft flight controls, improper use of
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, selected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACDT OCCURRED ON THE 2ND FLT OF TRANSITION TRNG FOR AN EXPERIENCED HELICOPTER PLT. THE TRNG ON THIS FLT INCLUDED SIM TAIL ROTOR FAILURE RUN-ON LANDINGS. THE CFI DEMONSTRATED 2 LANDINGS AND THE TRAINEE TOOK THE CONTROLS FOR THE 3RD. THE LANDINGS WERE BEING MADE IN THE GRASS BESIDE A PAVED RWY. DURING THE LANDING SLIDE THE FRONT OF THE SKIDS DUG IN AND THE HELICOPTER PITCHED FORWARD. THE TRAINEE PULLED UP ON THE COLLECTIVE AND AFT ON THE CYCLIC WHEREUPON THE HELICOPTER ROCKED BACKWARDS AND THE TAIL STRUCK THE GROUND. THE HELICOPTER BECAME AIRBORNE; HOWEVER, THE CFI DETECTED VIBRATION AND UNUSUAL NOISE AND ANNOUNCED 'TAIL ROTOR FAILURE'. AN EMERGENCY LANDING WAS COMPLETED WITH NO ADDITIONAL DAMAGE OR INJURIES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW88LA075
- Event ID
- 20001213X24909
- Case number
- FTW88LA075
- 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: b2ca1037bd7bc5d489d73cf2728c99dcca969f392d9f47aa668417138051adf3; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:39:34.851Z.