NYC84FA061 · Aerospatiale SA-360C
Aerospatiale SA-360C · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to East 34th Street Heliport (6N5)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC84FA061
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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-360C
- Aircraft type
- Aerospatiale SA-360
- 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
- N360CP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo East 34th Street Heliport (6N5), New York City
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Rotorcraft flight control, cyclic control › Undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Newark, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER ARRIVED AT THE NEWARK INTL ARPT AT 1531 AFTER AN UNEVENTFUL FLT FROM NEW YORK, NY WITH 2 EN ROUTE STOPS. AT 1540, THE PLT TAXIED FROM THE PASSENGER GATE FOR DEPARTURE. ACCORDING TO HIM, HE HAD NO CONTROL PROBLEMS, WHILE TAXIING. HE CHECKED THE ANNUNCIATOR PANEL BEFORE STARTING HIS TAKEOFF & SAW NO WARNING LIGHTS. COLLECTIVE PITCH WAS INCREASED TO REDUCE WEIGHT ON THE GEAR, FOLLOWED BY FURTHER PITCH INCREASE TO OBTAIN A HOVER. AT THAT TIME, THE CYCLIC CONTROL MOVED ABRUPTLY TO THE LEFT & WAS ACCOMPANIED WITH THE RIGHT MAIN GEAR BECOMING AIRBORNE. THE PLT APPLIED RIGHT CYCLIC & DECREASED THE COLLECTIVE; HOWEVER, THE HELICOPTER CONTINUED TO ROLL LEFT. THE HELICOPTER THEN HOPPED ON THE LEFT MAIN GEAR 3 TIMES & THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES HIT THE PAVEMENT. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT CAME TO REST ON ITS LEFT SIDE. AN EXAM & FUNCTIONAL TEST OF THE FLT CONTROL HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS REVEALED NO REASON FOR THE MALFUNCTION.THE TEMP WAS BELOW FREEZING (29 DEG), BUT NO SYSTEM ICING WAS FOUND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC84FA061
- Event ID
- 20001214X45397
- Case number
- NYC84FA061
- 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: 3c00b1a34c1c1da622e4b8022281dc9f00b74df0261889a55d7da501171570aa; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:46:30.078Z.