LAX89LA169 · Hiller UH-12D
Mountain Air Helicopter Hiller UH-12D · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89LA169
- 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 UH-12D
- Aircraft type
- Hiller UH-12
- 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
- N14490
- Operator
- Mountain Air Helicopter
- 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 133: Rotorcraft Ext. Load
- 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
- 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)
- 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
- Fuel exhaustion
- 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 › Fuel consumption calculations, inaccurate
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING AN EXTERNAL LOAD OPERATION, THE ENGINE LOST POWER. THE PILOT AUTOROTATED INTO A SURF TIDAL POOL RESULTING IN A HARD LANDING. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT THE HELICOPTER RAN OUT OF FUEL. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE NORMALLY 'STAKED' THE FUEL TANKS BEFORE APPROXIMATELY 95% OF HIS FLIGHTS BUT INDICATED THAT HE DID NOT CHECK THE FUEL LEVEL BEFORE THIS FLIGHT. HE ALSO INDICATED THAT BOTH THE FUEL GAUGE AND THE CLOCK IN THE AIRCRAFT WERE NOT WORKING PROPERLY PRIOR TO THE FLIGHT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S POOR PREFLIGHT PLANNING IN THAT HE DID NOT ACCURATELY ACCOUNT FOR THE FUEL ON BOARD THE AIRCRAFT AS A BASIS FOR FUEL CONSUMPTION CALCULATIONS THEREBY CAUSING THE ENGINE TO STOP PRODUCING POWER BECAUSE OF A LACK OF FUEL. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE INACCURATE FUEL GAUGE AND CLOCK IN THE AIRCRAFT THAT THE PILOT WAS AWARE OF BEFORE THE FLIGHT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89LA169
- Event ID
- 20001213X28132
- Case number
- LAX89LA169
- 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: 0bd9f13c92b7e46b229cb5c87078d11baee8e3a3c82d24b36bef4673ed28738f; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:42:36.993Z.