MKC87LA102 · Enstrom F-28A
Enstrom F-28A · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Drake Field (FYV) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC87LA102
- 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
Enstrom F-28A
- Aircraft type
- Enstrom F-28
- 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
- N13CM
- Operator
- Aerotek
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Drake Field (FYV), Fayetteville, ARTo 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 · hover
- 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
- 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 › Rotor RPM, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PIC WAS DEMONSTRATING THE HELO TO A PROSPECTIVE CUSTOMER. THE PIC WAS HOVERING IN A REMOTE AREA WITH ROUGH AND UNEVEN TERRAIN. THE PIC RPTD OUTSIDE AIR TEMPS OF ABT 90 DEGREES DURING THE DEMO FLT. THE PIC STATED THAT HE WAS MOVING AROUND OVER THE GRND IN A 3 TO 5 FT HOVER. THE PIC STATED THAT NO WIND WAS BLOWING AND HE WAS MOVING TO GET FRESH AIR THROUGH THE ROTORS. THE PIC THEN NOTICED THAT ENG RPM WAS DECREASING AND INCREASED THROTTLE TO COMPENSATE. THE PIC STATED THAT RPM CONTINUED TO DECREASE AND THE HELO BEGIN TO DESCEND DESPITE FULL THROTTLE. THE PIC STATED THAT HE HAD TO MANEUVER THE HELO BACK TO THE SPOT HE HAD INITALLY APPROACHED TO AVOID LANDING ON ROUGH AND UNEVEN TERRAIN. THE PIC STATED THAT THIS POSED A PBLM TO IMMEDIATE TOUCHDOWN AS HE MOVED THE HELO TO THE SMOOTH LNDG AREA. THE HELO SUBSEQUENTLY HARD LANDED SHORT OF THE LNDG AREA SUSTAINING SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE. NO MECH MALF WAS DISCOVERED DURING INSP.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC87LA102
- Event ID
- 20001213X31003
- Case number
- MKC87LA102
- 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: e2a9e6c9b5cc5af52eacc2755896aea97c4bb88719aad11bdfea14c11ba2ce54; retrieved 2026-09-23T13:11:51.919Z.