NYC84MA270 · Sikorsky S-76A
Sikorsky S-76A · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Morristown Municipal Airport (MMU) to AIY · ATLANTIC, NJ
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC84MA270
- 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
- 1 · 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
Sikorsky S-76A
- Aircraft type
- Sikorsky S-76
- 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
- N63WW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Morristown Municipal Airport (MMU), Morristown, NJTo AIY · ATLANTIC, NJ
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Total 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Turbine assembly, turbine wheel › Fatigue
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Fort Dix, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCREW OF THE HELICOPTER CONTACTED MCGUIRE RAPCON & OBTAINED CLEARANCE TO PROCEED THRU THE MCGUIRE AFB CONTROL ZONE AT 1500 FT. A SHORT TIME LATER, THE CREW DECLARED AN EMERGENCY. WITNESSES ON THE GROUND HEARD A LOUD 'BANG' & OBSERVED THE HELICOPTER SUDDENLY LOSE ALT. THE HELICOPTER RECOVERED FROM THE DESCENT & BEGAN A TURN TOWARD RWY 6/24 AT MCGUIRE AFB, THEN IT VEERED SHARPLY TO THE RIGHT & CRASHED INTO WOODED TERRAIN ON FT DIX. TREES AT THE ACCIDENT SITE WERE DAMAGED AT AN 80 DEG ANGLE FROM THE HORIZON. FIRE IN THE AREA OF THE ENGS WAS EXTINGUISHED WITH HALNON 1211 & AFFF AGENTS. AN EXAM REVEALED EVIDENCE OF A LEFT ENG FAILURE. THERE WERE INDICATIONS THAT FRAGMENTS FROM THE LEFT ENG TURBINE HAD IMPACTED THE RGT ENG WHILE IT (THE RGT ENG) WAS PRODUCING POWER. ONE OF THE TAIL ROTOR CONTROL CABLES & THE TAIL ROTOR DRIVE SHAFT WERE SEVERED IN THE AREA OF THE RGT ENG. A METALURGICAL CHECK REVEALED INDICATIONS OF HI CYCLIC FATIGUE OF THE 2ND STAGE GAS PRODUCER TURBINE WHEEL IN THE CURVIC COUPLING & LABYRINTH SEAL AREA.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC84MA270
- Event ID
- 20001214X40891
- Case number
- NYC84MA270
- 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: 666b6a6c662f3c5c5754a1a35ba50d4b9436535cfdee948fcd075a63f5090c23; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:24:00.946Z.