DEN83LA118 · Aerospatiale SA 315B
Aerospatiale SA 315B · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN83LA118
- 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 SA 315B
- Aircraft type
- Aerospatiale SA-315
- 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
- N90706
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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 133: Rotorcraft Ext. Load
- 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 · hover
- 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 control in flight
- 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
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Load jettison, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE ENGAGED IN SEISMIL WORK, THE PLT WAS CONTACTED BY RADIO & WAS ASKED TO ASSIST IN FREEING 2 CREW TRUCKS THAT HAD GOTTEN STUCK IN SAND DUNES. HE DECIDED TO ASSIST SINCE THE STUCK TRUCKS WERE DELAYING THE ENTIRE OPERATION. HE PLANNED TO PARTIALLY RAISE & PULL ONE END OF A TRUCK BY USING A 100 FT LONG LINE. THE HELICOPTER WAS FACING THE AFT END OF THE TRUCK & LONG LINE WAS AT ABOUT A 25-30 DEG ANGLE WHEN CONTINUOUS COLLECTIVE POWER WAS APPLIED. BY THE PLT. THE HELICOPTER THEN YAWED LEFT. THE PLT ATTEMPTED TO COMPENSATE WITH RIGHT ANTI-TORQUE PEDAL, REDUCED POWER & INDUCED RIGHT FORWARD CYCLIC. REPORTEDLY, THE HELICOPTER THEN TURNED 360 DEG & CAME TO REST ON ITS RIGHT SIDE. AT SOME POINT AFTER THE LEFT YAW, THE PLT RELEASED THE LONG LINE. THE COMPANY SAFETY OFFICER REPORTED THAT IF A 150 FT LONG LINE HAD BEEN USED, THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN A LARGER MARGIN FOR ERROR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN83LA118
- Event ID
- 20001214X42957
- Case number
- DEN83LA118
- 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: 4798f9e10b2ef20b9387b93a00637c767c5f4d7e9bbc316ef18fc25c2eef496e; retrieved 2026-09-23T22:11:41.524Z.