Papillion Helicopters Aerospatiale AS350D accident
Aerospatiale AS350D · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) while maneuvering
From Princeville Airport (HPV) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89LA197
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 AS350D
- Aircraft type
- Aerospatiale AS350
- 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
- N6003S
- Operator
- Papillion Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Princeville Airport (HPV), Princeville, HITo 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, adjustment, improper
- Fuel system, fuel control › Output low
- Pilot in command › Rotor RPM, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ON-DEMAND AIR TAXI HELICOPTER WAS ON A LOCAL SIGHTSEEING FLT TO WAIALAE FALLS WITH SIX PAX ABOARD. ELEVATION OF THE FALLS WAS ABOUT 3000 FT. AFTER HOVERING AT LOW ALT NEAR THE FALLS, THE PLT BEGAN A PEDAL TURN & BEGAN FORWARD MOVEMENT FOR THE INITIAL CLIMB AWAY FROM THE FALLS. THE MAIN ROTOR RPM DECAYED & THE PLT TURNED BACK TOWARD THE UPPER FALLS, WHERE HE THOUGHT HE COULD LAND. HOWEVER, THE HELICOPTER SETTLED INTO A RAVINE, IMPACTED ROCKS & CAME TO REST. AN EXAM OF THE ENG FUEL CONTROL REVEALED THE MAXIMUM STOP WAS SET AT 93% VERSUS 99% AS SPECIFIED BY THE MANUFACTURER. ALSO, THE GOVERNOR BREAK WAS SET 400 RPM EARLY, THERE WAS NO SEAL ON THE METERING VALVE SLEEVE & THE SAFETY WIRE THRU THE GOVERNOR ADJUSTMENT HAD BEEN CUT & NOT REPLACED.
Probable cause
IMPROPER MAINTENANCE/ADJUSTMENT OF THE ENGINE FUEL CONTROL UNIT BY COMPANY MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL, WHICH RESULTED IN A SLIGHT LOSS OF ENGINE POWER, AND FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN ROTOR RPM, WHILE TURNING AND TAKING OFF FROM A HOVER WITH A RELATIVELY HEAVY GROSS WEIGHT. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE AND ROUGH/UNEVEN (ROCKY) TERRAIN IN THE EMERGENCY LANDING AREA.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89LA197
- Event ID
- 20001213X28353
- Case number
- LAX89LA197
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1989-05-21.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e18f227f172e4f43de9a15d2d2dbe83a4ae207e056994fbfde0015cd97fe155c; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:11:38.761Z.