LAX86DVA17 · Hiller UH-12E
Hiller UH-12E · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX86DVA17
- 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
- 1 · 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-12E
- 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
- N5385V
- 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
- Maneuvering · aerial application
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft performance, turn capability › Exceeded
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE EXECUTING A 90 DEG/270 DEG COURSE REVERSAL TURN, THE PLT LOST CONTROL OF THE HELICOPTER WHICH COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND. GROUND WITNESSES REPORTED THAT THE PLT HAD COMPLETED SPRAYING A COTTON FIELD AND ADVISED THE GROUND FLAGGER THAT THE WINDS HAD CHANGED TO A DOWNWIND CONDITION. THE PLT THEN EXECUTED THE COURSE REVERSLA MANEUVER WHICH WAS DESCRIBED AS A 'SLOW AIRSPEED, TIGHT RIGHT TURN, FOLLOWED BY A TIGHT LEFT TURN.' THE HELICOPTER CRASHED DURING THE LEFT TURN AND WAS DESTROYED BY IMPACT FORCES AND POST-IMPACT FIRE. EXAMINATION OF THE HELICOPTER DISCLOSED NO EVIDENCE OF ANY PRE-EXISTING MALFUNCTIONS OR FAILURES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX86DVA17
- Event ID
- 20001213X34797
- Case number
- LAX86DVA17
- 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: db9bf71d7f6f05779a888a167fbdeeae391c912eba4f5d7313bb9c8543f09b42; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:22:49.833Z.