FTW83FA238 · Aerospatiale AS-350D
Aerospatiale AS-350D · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From WEST DELTA, GM to 7R1 · VENICE, LA
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW83FA238
- 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
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
- N36062
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From WEST DELTA, GMTo 7R1 · VENICE, LA
- 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
- Airframe, component or system 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
- Manufacturer › Inadequate quality control
- Turboshaft engine, reduction gear box › Fatigue
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT CRASHED INTO A SWAMP WITH LOW ROTOR RPM AFTER A FAILURE OF THE ACCESSORY GEARBOX POWER OUTPUT GEAR. THE PILOT RADIOED AN EMERGENCY CALL SAYING HE WAS EXPERIENCING SEVERE VIBRATIONS AND WAS LANDING. A FEW SECONDS LATER, HE RADIOED THAT HE WAS CRASHING. RESCUE ACFT FOUND THE HELICOPTER ON ITS RIGHT SIDE PARTIALLY IN WATER. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT THEFAILED GEAR BOX RESULTED IN LOW ROTOR SPEED WHICH WAS NOT RECOVERED DUE TO LACK OF ALTITUDE AT THE TIME OF FAILURE. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE POWER TURBINE OUTPUT (PTO) GEAR, PN 4-081-044-15, FAILED FROM LOW STRESS, HIGH CYCLE FATIGUE. THE FATIGUE ORIGINATED AT A POINT WERE REHARDENING BURNS CAUSED BY GRINDING WERE PRESENT. THIS GRINDING WAS ACCOMPLISHED DURING MANUFACTURING OF THE GEAR AFTER IT HAD BEEN CARBURIZED. THE PROCEDURE SHOULD HAVE BEEN ACCOMPLISHED PRIOR TO CARBURIZATION WHEN THE MATERIAL SURFACE WAS MUCH SOFTER & LESS SUSCEPTIBLE TO GRINDING BURNS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW83FA238
- Event ID
- 20001214X42970
- Case number
- FTW83FA238
- 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: 6f40b393d1c3ce95b73a19bf721e56a8d0a53a3a33122a4f09add7e7e28152e8; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:48:05.850Z.