CHI89DEX05 · Texas Helicopter OH-13H/M74A OH-13H/M74
Texas Helicopter OH-13H/M74A OH-13H/M74 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI89DEX05
- 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
Texas Helicopter OH-13H/M74A OH-13H/M74
- Aircraft type
- Texas OH-13
- 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
- N10002
- Operator
- Unknown
- 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 supply, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A TOTAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER WAS EXPERIENCED DURING THE AG FLIGHT SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF AT AN ALTITUDE OF APPROXIMATELY 75 TO 100 FT AGL. THE TAIL BOOM OF THE HELICOPTER CONTACTED THE GROUND DURING THE AUTOROTATION IN A CORN FIELD WHICH RESULTED IN SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE TO THE HELICOPTER. POST ACCIDENT INSPECTION REVEALED FUEL EXHAUSTION. THE PILOT REPORTED HE VISUALLY CHECKED THE FUEL QUANTITY AGAINST THE FUEL GAUGES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FLYING DAY. HE STATED THAT JUST PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT TAKEOFF, THE FUEL GAUGES INDICATED 10 TO 14 GALLONS OF FUEL REMAINED. THE HELICOPTER OWNER STATED THAT AT LOW FUEL LEVELS THE GAUGES WERE KNOWN TO BE UNRELIABLE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S MISJUDGEMENT OF THE FUEL SUPPLY WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL EXHAUSTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI89DEX05
- Event ID
- 20001213X28753
- Case number
- CHI89DEX05
- 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: 71129c8c42a361c9b0df2df73d741c048f555876623c824f6a98e6949d341f0c; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:24:12.047Z.