LAX85LA305 · Hiller UH-12E
Hiller UH-12E · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) while maneuvering
From Gonzales, CA to Salinas, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX85LA305
- 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-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
- N161HA
- Operator
- Verticare
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gonzales, CATo Salinas, CA
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Fuel system, line fitting › Corroded
- Fuel system, line fitting › Deteriorated
- Fuel system, line fitting › Unapproved part
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, replacement, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE CRUISING DURING AN AG FLIGHT THE ACFT'S ENG BEGAN LOSING PWR. AT THE TIME THE ACFT WAS ABOUT 50 FT AGL & WAS TRAVELLING AT 50 MPH. THE PLT MADE A FORCED LDG ONTO A NEARBY PLOWED FLD. UPON TOUCHDOWN THE RT SKID DUG INTO A FURROW & THE ACFT ROLLED OVER. EXAM OF THE ACFT REVEALED THAT AN AIR LEAK HAD DEVELOPED AT THE FUEL FEED LINE INLET TO THE ELECTRIC BOOST PUMP. THE CONNECTOR INLET BUSHING BEING USED WAS NOT FOUND TO BE OF 'ACFT QUALITY,' & ITS CONDITION WAS OBSERVED TO BE RUSTED, PUTTED & ROUGH. THE INDIVIDUAL(S) RESPONSIBLE FOR ORIGINALLY PLACING THE UNAUTHORIZED PART IN SERVICE COULD NOT BE DETERMINED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX85LA305
- Event ID
- 20001214X37164
- Case number
- LAX85LA305
- 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: c0a44b9f86c430923f84b8f8d2116b311ed94fa54b9a62a6473958fe70c4e79c; retrieved 2026-09-23T16:59:09.301Z.