SEA83AA176 · Fairchild Hiller FH-1100
Fairchild Hiller FH-1100 · Accident: loss of engine power
From KID VALLEY, WA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA83AA176
- 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
- 5 · 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
Fairchild Hiller FH-1100
- Aircraft type
- Fairchild Hiller FH-1100
- 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
- N29917
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From KID VALLEY, WATo 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
- Unknown
- 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 engine power
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER TOOK OFF ON A SIGHT-SEEING, PASSENGER FLT IN THE MOUNT ST HELENS AREA. WHEN THE FLT BECAME OVERDUE, A SEARCH WAS INITIATED. LATER, THE HELICOPTER WAS FOUND WHERE IT CRASHED & BURNED IN A HEAVILY WOODED AREA ON RELATIVELY LEVEL TERRAIN, NEAR THE NORTH FORK OF THE TOUTLE RIVER, AT AN ELEVATION OF APRX 800 FT. THERE WERE NO KNOWN WITNESSES. AN EXAM OF THE CRASH SITE REVEALED THAT ONLY THE TREES WITHIN 34 FT OF THE WRECKAGE WERE DAMAGED. THERE WAS EXTENSIVE FIRE DAMAGE TO THE INSTRUMENT PANEL, BUT THE N1 RPM GAGE WAS FOUND AT 72%, THE N2 RPM GAGE WAS AT 43% & THE ROTOR RPM GAGE WAS AT 35%. A LACK OF ROTATIONAL DAMAGE WAS NOTED ON THE MAIN & TAIL ROTOR BLADES. THE FUEL CONTROL, FUEL GOVERNOR & FUEL PUMP WERE DESTROYED BY FIRE. SOME ROTATIONAL DAMAGE WAS NOTED IN THE ENG. HOWEVER, NO PREIMPACT, MECHANICAL FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS VERIFIED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA83AA176
- Event ID
- 20001214X44343
- Case number
- SEA83AA176
- 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: 49984028f557c4371b99efa844374325e22836a717b006ca799f895392c85704; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:20:31.448Z.