BFO86FA018 · Hughes 500D
Hughes 500D · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport (SHD) to MT. JACKSON, VA
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO86FA018
- 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
Hughes 500D
- Aircraft type
- Hughes 500
- 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
- N8352F
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport (SHD), SHENDANDOAH, VATo MT. JACKSON, VA
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Airframe, component or system 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
- Manufacturer › Acft/equip, inadequate standard/requirement
- Pilot in command › Level off, misjudged
- Rotor drive system, combining gearbox › Failure, total
- Rotor drive system, combining gearbox › Fatigue
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER REFUELING AT SHENANDOAH VALLEY AIRPORT LOCATED NEAR STAUNTON, VIRGINIA, THE HELICOPTER CLIMBED TO ABOUT 1800 FEET MSL ON A NORTH HEADING. APPROXIMATELY 15 MINUTES AFTER DEPARTURE A LOUD RUMBLE WAS HEARD COMING FROM THE REAR OF THE AIRCRAFT AND THE PILOT IMMEDIATELY LOWERED THE COLLECTIVE AND ROLLED OFF THE THROTTLE. THE STUDENT PILOT, SITTING IN THE RIGHT FRONT SEAT, STATED THAT AFTER THE PILOT INITIATED THE FLARE, THE HELICOPTER 'HUNG IN THE AIR FOR A MONENT AT APPROX. 30' AGL THEN DROPPED TO THE GROUND AND ROLLED OVER.' DISASSEMBLY OF THE TAIL ROTOR DRIVE GEAR ASSEMBLY REVEALED THAT THE OUTPUT DRIVE PINION HAD FAILED. LABORATORY EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT THE FRACTURE SURFACES REVEALED MARKINGS TYPICAL OF FATIGUE PROGRESSION. MCDONNELL DOUGLAS HELICOPTER COMPANY HAD ISSUED AN ENGINEERING ORDER #139419 WHICH CONCERNED REWORKING THE DRIVE PINION, HOWEVER, A SERVICE BULLETIN WAS NOT ISSUED REGARDING THE NEED TO REWORK THE PINION AT OVERHAUL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO86FA018
- Event ID
- 20001213X32993
- Case number
- BFO86FA018
- 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: c20438cd298457e722e002650cdad311ff3e62c84f61c7028f9bd72e56e18fca; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:02:32.116Z.