SEA83LA170 · Aerospatiale SA-315B
Aerospatiale SA-315B · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Montpelier, ID to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA83LA170
- 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
- N49532
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Montpelier, IDTo 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 · 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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 › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT & 3 PASSENGERS WERE ON A FLT TO FIND DRILLING SUPPLIES THAT HAD BEEN DROPPED OFF OF A TRUCK ON THE PREVIOUS DAY. THE PLT REPORTED THAT HE WAS HOVERING DOWN AN ABANDONED ROAD AT ABOUT 5 TO 10 MPH & 15 TO 20 FT AGL WHEN THE HELICOPTER COLLIDED WITH POWER LINES. THE POWER LINES WERE UNMARKED & CROSSED THE ROAD AT A 90 DEG ANGLE. THE COLLISION OCCURRED WHERE THE LINES SPANNED 2000 FT BETWEEN SUPPORTS. AFTER HITTING THE POWER LINES, THE HELICOPTER STRUCK THE GROUND & CAME TO REST ON ITS SIDE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA83LA170
- Event ID
- 20001214X44359
- Case number
- SEA83LA170
- 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: 423de2c043b0cc9432a2c49f2259935603bb366b080b61869c05a736ce69c788; retrieved 2026-09-23T21:36:18.812Z.