MKC88FA043 · Aerospatiale AS-350B
Rocky Mountain Helicopters Aerospatiale AS-350B · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC88FA043
- 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-350B
- Aircraft type
- Aerospatiale AS-350
- 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
- N26TM
- Operator
- Rocky Mountain Helicopters
- 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 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
- Maneuvering · hover
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Pole; Tree(s)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Rotorcraft flight control system, primary servo › Ice
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT PICKED THE AIRCRAFT UP TO A HOVER AND MADE A HOVERING TURN IN PREPARATION FOR DEPARTURE. THE NOSE OF THE AIRCRAFT BEGAN TO RISE. THE PILOT STATED LATER THAT HE COULD NOT CONTROL THE AIRCRAFT. THE AIRCRAFT BEGAN TO DESCEND AND THE TAIL ROTOR STRUCK A SECURITY FENCE AROUND THE HELIPORT. THE MAIN ROTOR THEN STRUCK A WIND SOCK POLE, A TREE, LIGHT POLE, AND CONCRETE BENCH DURING THE ACCIDENT SEQUENCE. THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE MANUFACTURER'S SERVICE BULLETIN (SB) #67-05 HAD BEEN PARTIALLY COMPLETED. THE SB PROVIDED FOR PROTECTION AGAINST ICE IN THE HYDRAULIC SERVO BY INSTALLATION OF PROTECTIVE COVERS. THE PROTECTIVE COVERS HAD BEEN INSTALLED TO PROTECT THE OTHER TWO MAIN ROTOR SERVOS BUT NOT THE SERVO WHICH CONTROLLED FORE AND AFT CYCLIC CONTROL. THE OMAHA AREA EXPERIENCED FREEZING PRECIPITATION THE NIGHT BEFORE THE ACCIDENT,THE TEMPERATURE HAD NOT RISEN ABOVE FREEZING DURING THE DAY, AND FREEZING PRECIP WAS FORECAST.THIS WAS THE FIRST FLIGHT OF THE DAY FOR THIS ACFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC88FA043
- Event ID
- 20001213X24963
- Case number
- MKC88FA043
- 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: aefe06822bac1bb47e972e0fc77abec9a49ffed0f842a16c9f63cb47c0aec031; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:39:31.783Z.