SEA85FA137 · Hiller UH-12C
Hiller UH-12C · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Madras Municipal Airport (S33)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA85FA137
- 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
Hiller UH-12C
- 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
- N4732
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From not recordedTo Madras Municipal Airport (S33), Madras, OR
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 engine power
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inadequate
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, strainer › Loose
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING A FLT FROM MADRAS, OR TO WALLA WALLA, WA, A LOSS OF ENG POWER OCCURRED DUE TO A FUEL FLOW PROBLEM & THE PLT MADE A SUCCESSFUL AUTOROTATION NEAR WARM SPRINGS, OR. A COMPANY MECHANIC WAS DISPATCHED TO THE HELICOPTER & HE REPAIRED A LOOSE FUEL LINE FITTING. LATE THAT EVENING, THE PLT STARTED & RAN THE ENG FOR ABOUT 10 MIN. HE THEN HOVERED FOR 4 TO 5 MIN BEFORE STARTING HIS DEPARTURE. THE PLT REPORTED THAT DURING DEPARTURE, THE ENG BEGAN LOSING RPM AT ABOUT 40 FT AGL. HE ATTEMPTED TO RESTORE POWER, BUT WAS UNABLE. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE HELICOPTER IMPACTED ON ITS SKID LANDING GEAR & TAIL SKID, THEN CAME TO REST ON ITS LEFT SIDE ABOUT 60 FT FROM THE IMPACT POINT. AN EXAM OF THE FUEL SYSTEM REVEALED THAT THE FUEL STRAINER, KOE/K2250B-2, WAS LOOSE AT BOTH ENGS OF THE GLASS & COULD BE TURNED WITH SLIGHT PRESSURE. THE BOLT AT THE BOTTOM OF THE LOWER PIECE WAS NOT SAFETY WIRED & WAS LOOSE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA85FA137
- Event ID
- 20001214X36911
- Case number
- SEA85FA137
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1985-06-14.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 55f2b27310fa9f53c7e01462a4f4a10e105ddfe016ea6a6a8614d2b28ec7e5ad; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:15:32.026Z.