FTW85LA119 · Sikorsky S-76A
Sikorsky S-76A · Accident: in flight encounter with weather on approach
From Abbeville, LA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW85LA119
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Sikorsky S-76A
- Aircraft type
- Sikorsky S-76
- 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
- N31223
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Abbeville, LATo 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
- Approach
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › Planned approach, improper
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCREW HAD JUST COMPLETED A MEDIVAC FLT & WERE REPOSITIONING THE HELICOPTER TO THE HOME BASE. WHILE THEY WERE EN ROUTE, THE COMPANY DISPATCHER INFORMED THE CREW THAT FOG WAS MOVING INTO THE AREA & THAT THEY HAD BETTER HURRY. DURING THE NIGHT APCH, THE HELICOPTER IMPACTED THE GROUND IN A LEVEL ATTITUDE, ABOUT 300 WEST OF THE THRESHOLD TO RWY 18. THE CREW STATED THAT THE LAST THING THEY REMEMBER WAS BEING AT 250 FT AGL WHILE ATTEMPTING A VFR APCH. ONE PLT WAS MONITORING THE INSTRUMENTS WHILE THE OTHER WAS ATTEMPTING TO OBTAIN THE RWY ENVIRONMENT. THE ACFT WAS EQUIPPED & THE PLTS WERE QUALIFIED TO MAKE AN INSTRUMENT APCH.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW85LA119
- Event ID
- 20001214X35702
- Case number
- FTW85LA119
- 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: 561bcff71f4c63491ea58181531298ab3e2d6af1d5d5e2e8ed0a2957f083f4e9; retrieved 2026-09-22T01:58:33.807Z.