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DEN85FTM04 · Kokes SCORPION 133 SCORPION 1

29 Jun 1985 · Grand Junction, CO, United States

Kokes SCORPION 133 SCORPION 1 · Accident while taxiing

From Grand Junction Regional Airport (GJT) to Grand Junction Regional Airport (GJT)

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Event

NTSB case
DEN85FTM04
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

Kokes SCORPION 133 SCORPION 1

Aircraft type
Kokes SCORPION 133
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
N45877
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Grand Junction Regional Airport (GJT)To Grand Junction Regional Airport (GJT)
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
Taxi · aerial
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

  • Pilot in command › Aircraft handling, not maintained

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

A GROUP OF PLTS WERE PREPARING FOR AN AIRSHOW FLYBY. AS A FORMATION OF AIRPLANES WERE BEING TAXIED TO RWY 29, THE PLT OF A HOME BUILT SCORPION 133 HELICOPTER, N45877, WAS CLEARED TO AIR TAXI ACROSS RWY 29 & PROCEED TO RWY 22. AS THE HELICOPTER PLT WAS APPROACHING RWY 22 & WAS IN A DESCENDING LEFT TURN, A HOME BUILT AIRPLANE WAS TAKING OFF ON THE SAME RWY (22). TO AVOID A POSSIBLE COLLISION, THE HELICOPTER PLT MADE A HARD LEFT TURN & 'PUSHED IT TO THE GROUND' BETWEEN RWY 22 & THE PARALLEL TAXIWAY. DURING TOUCHDOWN, THE HELICOPTER ROLLED OVER. THE PLT STATED THAT THE LANDING WAS NOT HARD. HE BELIEVED THAT GYROSCOPIC PRECESSION CAUSED THE HELICOPTER TO ROLL OVER.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record DEN85FTM04
Event ID
20001214X36740
Case number
DEN85FTM04
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: 838dcdcf9f1bddea48826a3b0d042cace6ccb51d8784911a838469957244e0b5; retrieved 2026-09-23T17:05:02.075Z.