FTW89LA043 · Hiller OH-23B
S & F Helo Service Hiller OH-23B · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Wichita Valley Airport (F14) to Holliday, TX (no airport)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW89LA043
- 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
Hiller OH-23B
- Aircraft type
- Hiller OH-23
- 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
- N88785
- Operator
- S & F Helo Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wichita Valley Airport (F14), Wichita Falls, TXTo Holliday, TX (no airport)
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 (non-mechanical)
- 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 › Carburetor heat, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Flare, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Wichita Falls, TX, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT RPRTD THAT AFTER HE HAD FLOWN ABOUT 45 MIN, HE LANDED AT THE WICHITA VALLEY ARPT, THEN TOOK OFF FOR A RTRN FLT TO HOLLIDAY, TX. SHORTLY AFTER DEPARTING THE WICHITA VALLEY ARPT, WHILE EN ROUTE AT ABOUT 500' AGL, THE ENG 'MISSED A FEW TIMES.' THE PLT TURNED TO LAND AT THE ARPT, BUT THE ENG SUBSEQUENTLY LOST ALL POWER. THE PLT MADE AN AUTOROTATIVE LANDING IN A WHEAT FIELD; HOWEVER, DRG THE LANDING, THE HELICOPTER TOUCHED DOWN HARD & WAS DAMAGED. THE LANDING WAS ON A NORTHERLY HEADING. THE 1001 CST WIND AT WICHITA FALLS WAS FROM 180 DEG AT 10 KTS. NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL PROBLEM WAS FOUND DRG THE INVESTIGATION. THE TEMP & DEW POINT WERE 49 & 24 DEG, RESPECTIVELY. ACCORDING TO CARB ICING CHARTS, CONDITIONS WERE CONDUCIVE FOR CARB ICING. THE PLT RPRTD HE WAS OPERATING WITH THE CARB HEAT APRX 1/4 'ON.'
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER USE OF THE CARBURETOR HEAT DURING FLIGHT AND HIS IMPROPER FLARE DURING AN AUTOROTATIVE LANDING. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS WERE: CARBURETOR ICING CONDITIONS, IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT, A TAILWIND DURING THE LANDING, AND THE PILOT'S LACK OF RECENT EXPERIENCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW89LA043
- Event ID
- 20001213X27589
- Case number
- FTW89LA043
- 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: 3f54a71af685a482b91bf06a13434881999950a7b741c60f86bc8d6aef62538e; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:56:37.547Z.