FTW84LA314 · Aerospatiale AS-355F
Aerospatiale AS-355F · Accident: in flight encounter with weather while maneuvering
From Pecos Municipal Airport (PEQ) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW84LA314
- 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
Aerospatiale AS-355F
- Aircraft type
- Aerospatiale AS-355
- 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
- N240US
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Pecos Municipal Airport (PEQ), Pecos, TXTo 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
- 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
- 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 › Collective, delayed
- Pilot in command › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Cyclic, excessive
- Pilot in command › Throttle/power control, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Weather evaluation, inaccurate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER ENCOUNTERED TURBULENCE AND DOWNDRAFTS DURING LANDING. THE ACFT IMPACTED THE ASPHALT RAMP SLIGHTLY NOSE LOW AND BOUNCED 2-3 FT INTO THE AIR. THE NOSE DIPPED MORE AND FULL AFT CYCLIC WAS APPLIED. THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES HIT THE GROUND AND THE ACFT YAWED AND ROLLED OVER TO THE RIGHT. THE ACFT WAS DESTROYED BY FIRE. THE PLT STATED THAT HE EXPERIENCED TURBULENCE AND AS HE TURNED TOWARD THE RAMP TO LAND THE ACFT BEGAN A RAPID DESCENT FROM 50 FT AGL. A LITTLE COLLECTIVE WAS ADDED BUT THE ACFT DID NOT RESPOND. THE PLT TURNED FAST INTO THE WIND AND ADDED FULL UP COLLECTIVE. THE DESCENT CONTINUED TO IMPACT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW84LA314
- Event ID
- 20001214X40324
- Case number
- FTW84LA314
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1984-07-20.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f1da6b5c94955cdc2730fb4b0a634b52c80ce741f4937a2af5774f2be0b6b3de; retrieved 2026-09-23T20:05:59.685Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: damage. The narrative states "THE ACFT WAS DESTROYED BY FIRE" after the helicopter rolled over on the ramp.