NYC89FA089 · Aerospatiale AS-350D
Aerospatiale AS-350D · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during landing
From Teterboro Airport (KTEB) to an unrecorded destination
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's flight rules. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC89FA089
- 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-350D
- 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
- N5793P
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Teterboro Airport (KTEB), TETERBORO, NJTo 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 Possible conflict
- 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 · flare/touchdown
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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
- Check pilot › Procedures/directives, not followed
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PIC & AN FAA EXAMINER (F/E) WERE ON A PART 135 CHECK FLT. ABT 900' TO 1000' AGL, THE F/E INITIATED AN AUTOROTATION (A/R) WITH INTENTIONS OF A PWR RECOVERY, ALTHO NO PROCEDURE FOR PERFORMING PWR RECOVERY FM AN A/R WAS PUBLISHED IN THE FLT MANUAL (F/M). HE INITIATED THE A/R BY MOVG THE FUEL FLOW CONTROL/POWER LEVER (FFC) OUT OF THE FULL FWD (PWR LOCKED) PSN. AT ABT 400' AGL & 65 KTS, THE FFC WAS PSND BACK TO THE FULL FWD (DETENT) PSN. AT ABT 65' AGL, THE PIC INITIATED A FLARE WITH COLLECTIVE PITCH CTL, BUT THE ENG LACKED RESPONSE. THE PIC CONTD THE A/R TO TOUCHDOWN ON SOFT TRRN. DRG THE LNDG, THE TAIL ROTOR STRUCK A MOUND OF DIRT, BOTH TAIL ROTOR BLADES SEPD, THEN THE HELICOPTER ROLLED ON ITS RGT SIDE & CAME TO REST. INV REVEALED THE GOVERNOR ANTICIPATOR WOULD NOT HAVE ACTIVATED UNTIL COLLECTIVE PITCH WAS APPLIED & THE ENG COULD TAKE UP TO 9 SEC TO SPOOL UP. F/M ADDRESSED ONLY FULL STOP (A/R) LNDGS. MANUAL FOR AEROSPATIALE INSTRUCTORS RESTRICTED PWR RCVRY TO 200' AGL. NO MECH STOP WAS PROVIDED TO KEEP THE ENG FM GOING BLO 50% DRG PWR RDCN FOR A/R.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE FAA FLIGHT EXAMINER (F/E) TO FOLLOW PROPER PROCEDURES CONCERNING THE AUTOROTATION, AND IMPROPER REMEDIAL ACTION BY THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND (PIC). FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: LACK OF INFORMATION IN THE FLIGHT MANUAL CONCERNING AUTOROTATIONS, THE FLIGHT EXAMINER'S LACK OF EXPERIENCE IN THE AIRCRAFT, AND THE SOFT TERRAIN AND MOUND OF DIRT (DIRT BANK) IN THE EMERGENCY LANDING AREA.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC89FA089
- Event ID
- 20001213X27792
- Case number
- NYC89FA089
- 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: d662cb37e205e2e788185342ae55d6cd287c2c53e3e7e09811eb17d4b527913b; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:17:12.882Z.