NYC01LA144 · Eurocopter France AS-350-BA
Eurocopter France AS-350-BA · Accident: in flight collision with object en route
From Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) to West 30th Street Heliport (JRA)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC01LA144
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Eurocopter France AS-350-BA
- Aircraft type
- Eurocopter 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
- N555LH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), Philadelphia, PATo West 30th Street Heliport (JRA), New York, NY
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot departed in a helicopter with seven passengers, on a night VFR cross-country flight under FAR 135, into known deteriorating weather conditions. About 35 minutes after departure, while maneuvering in IMC conditions, the helicopter struck trees, and came to rest about 735 feet from initial tree contact. The flight had been one of two helicopters that had carried passengers to the departure airport. The pilot of the other helicopter made three contacts with flight service for weather briefings, and relayed his finding to the accident pilot. The briefings included VFR flight not recommended, and deteriorating weather. The company operations manual called for a minimum weather of a 500 foot ceiling and 1 mile visibility, and that to operate VFR, the pilot had to have visual surface reference. The pilot reported that he entered IMC conditions and was attempting to perform a precautionary landing when the tail rotor struck a tree. The pilot also reported that after the accident, he estimated the ceiling was about 100 feet high and the visibility was about 1 mile at the accident site. Radar data tracked the flight as the pilot maneuvered between 300 feet MSL, and 1,300 feet MSL, and then descended toward a nearby airport. However, due to terrain, there was no radar of the last portion of the flight. A pilot rated passenger seated in the front row, reported the pilot entered into IMC conditions, and maneuvered in IMC conditions for several minutes. He also said the helicopter was in IMC conditions, in cruise flight when it struck trees. The departure weight exceeded the maximum allowable takeoff weight by about 115 pounds and also exceeded the forward CG limit. Additionally, the passengers reported no pre-departure passenger briefing had been conducted.
Probable cause
the pilot's improper decision to continue flight in instrument meteorological conditions, and which resulted in an in-flight collision with trees. Factors were the fog, and dark night conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC01LA144
- Event ID
- 20010627X01263
- Case number
- NYC01LA144
- 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, coordinates. 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: e528900cc6de15207108ac6a6f789ef3db20832227f3a83304536135f6591352; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:12:33.841Z.