LAX86MA238 · Aerospatiale AS-355F-1
Hemmeter Aviation Aerospatiale AS-355F-1 · Accident while maneuvering
From an unrecorded airport to MAUI, HI
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX86MA238
- 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
Aerospatiale AS-355F-1
- Aircraft type
- Aerospatiale AS-355
- 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
- N909CH
- Operator
- Hemmeter Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo MAUI, HI
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT RPRTD THAT AS HE 'HOVERED' THE HELICOPTER BTN 5 & 10 FT AFTER LIFT-OFF, HE NOTED A 'SLIGHT LATERAL VIBRATION.' HE LNDD IMMEDIATELY, BUT THE VIBRATION/GROUND RESONANCE (VIB) INCREASED IN SEVERITY, SO HE 'SHUT-OFF' BOTH THROTTLES. THE VIB CONTD TO THE EXTENT THAT HE COULDN'T HOLD ONTO THE CYCLIC CTL STICK. THE TRANSMISSION SEPD FM ITS ATTACH POINT &THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES CONTACTED THE GND BFR THE ENG STOPPED. AN EXAM REVEALED THE TRANSMISSION SUPPORT BARS (TSB'S) HAD FAILED DRG THE ACDNT. THERE WAS EVIDENCE OF OVERLOAD FAILURE OF THE TSB'S, EXCEPT THE LEFT FWD TSB HAD EVIDENCE OF FA- TIGUE ON EITHER SIDE OF THE BUCKLED AREA. A STRIATION COUNT INDCD THE CRACK HAD PROGRESSED OVR AN ESTD TIME OF AT LEAST 1 HR & 15 MIN. ALSO, AN ARM OF THE STARFLEX ASSY (S/A) HAD FAILED. THE S/A HAD 323 HRS SINCE RPLCMNT. CRAZE CRACKS WERE FND ON THE S/A, BUT AN EXAM FAILED TO VERIFY WHETHER THEY HAD FORMED BFR OR DRG THE ACDNT. THE S/A WAS APRX 3% POROUS & HOLES IN THE ENAMEL BARRIER ALLOWED ENVIRONMENTAL BLACKENING OF ITS EDGES. LNDG SKID SHOCK ABSORBERS WERE BADLY DMG.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX86MA238
- Event ID
- 20001213X33612
- Case number
- LAX86MA238
- 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: 562799de87ea3d02bc9b56c867ee784ee97e8581aedccae2993875d9fc99bb46; retrieved 2026-09-22T01:24:23.036Z.