Raco Helciopters Aerospatiale AS-350D accident
Aerospatiale AS-350D · Accident: in flight encounter with weather while maneuvering
From Araçuaí Airport (AIY) to Garden City, NY
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC84FA214
- 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
- 3 · 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
Aerospatiale AS-350D
- Aircraft type
- Aerospatiale AS-350
- 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
- N5784M
- Operator
- Raco Helciopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Araçuaí Airport (AIY)To Garden City, NY
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- 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 › Altitude, improper
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, initiated
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
THE ON-DEMAND AIR TAXI FLT DEPARTED FOR GARDEN CITY WITH ONE PAX. THE REPORTED WEATHER AT THE APRX TIME OF THE ACCIDENT INDICATED LOW CLOUDS, THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY INCLUDING RAIN AND LIGHTING. ONE WITNESS STATED THAT HE OBSERVED THE HELICOPTER FLYING AT AN ALTITUDE OF APRX 60 TO 80 FEET ABOVE THE WATER. THE HELICOPTER WRECKAGE WAS FOUND THE NEXT DAY ON THE BEACH. THE FLT HAD DELAYED ITS DEPARTUE FROM BADER AFTER A LATE SPECIAL FLT TO ACCOMIDATE ITS PAX. AT THE REQUEST OF THE PAX THE CREW DELAYED THEIR FINAL DEPARTURE OF THE FLT. LATER IN THE TERMINAL THIS DECISION WAS CHANGED AFTER THE CREW CHECKED THE WX. THE CREW PREVAILED UPON THE PAX TO ALLOW AN IMMEDIATE DEPARTURE DUE TO DETERIORATING WX. SHORTLY AFTER THEIR DEPARTURE A PHONE CALL FROM RACO WAS RECEIVED BY THE BADER DISPATCHER INQUIRING ABOUT THE FLT AND ADVISING THEM TO CANCEL DEPARTURE BECAUSE OF THE WX. THIS CALL REPORTEDLY CAME IN BET 0200-0230. WITNESS STATEMENTS VARYON TIMES CONCERNING THE FLT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC84FA214
- Event ID
- 20001214X40084
- Case number
- NYC84FA214
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 9a89b83713c7010dcf101ff47b8ff6fce54bcefedacd7e8c025f62d63f93e6d6; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:28:12.979Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N5784M; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.