ATL90GA010 · Hiller UH-12D
Hiller UH-12D · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Concord Airpark (2G1) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL90GA010
- 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
- N63LC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Concord Airpark (2G1), CONCORD, OHTo 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
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER (HEL) WAS BEING USED TO TAKE A RADIO TO A COUNTY EMERG OPNS CENTER TO TEST ITS RECEPTION AT 500' AGL. LOADED WITH THE RADIO, 27 GAL OF FUEL & A PAX, IT WAS WITHIN ITS WT & BALANCE LMTS. AS THE HEL WAS APCHG THE 500' LCTN &WAS BEING SLOWED IN LIGHT WIND (EST FM 160 DEG AT 5 KTS), THE PLT FELT A MODERATE VIBRATION. HE INTERPRETED THIS AS A TAIL ROTOR PROBLEM & REACTED BY ADJUSTING THE THROTTLE & OPERG THE PEDALS. HE STATED THAT THIS SEEMED ONLY TO OSCILLATE THE TAIL & CAUSE A LOSS OF LIFT. ALSO, HE NOTED THE VIBRATION SLOWED IN FREQ & BCM MORE VIOLENT. HE ATMTD TO INCREASE ENG RPM & RAISE THE COLLECTIVE TO GAIN ALT, BUT THE HEL BGN SPIRALING. IT THEN CRASHED ON WOODED TERRAIN & BGN BURNING, BUT THE OCCUPANTS EGRESSED. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE/MALFUNCTION WAS FND THAT WOULD HAVE RESULTED IN THE ACDNT, THOUGH SOME BINDING WAS NOTED IN THE PITCH CHANGE MECHANISM. SVRL WITNESSES INDCD THAT BEFORE THE ACDNT, THE HEL APCHD THE AREAFM THE NE & BGN SLOWING, AS IF THE PLT INTENDED TO HOVER. IT THEN BGN ROTATING TO THE RGT & SUBSEQUENTLY CRASHED.
Probable cause
IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE PILOT'S IMPROPER COMPENSATION FOR WIND CONDITIONS AND TREES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL90GA010
- Event ID
- 20001213X29525
- Case number
- ATL90GA010
- 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: ac7dd95b427be0f6a0e2d8a1a13f84ba0c9d1cea8768e90404fd4adc3c60e9f4; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:47:51.958Z.