DEN02LA010 · Agusta A119
Agusta A119 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) on approach
From Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) to Ogden, UT
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN02LA010
- 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
- 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
Agusta A119
- Aircraft type
- Agusta A119
- 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
- N119RX
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC), Salt Lake City, UTTo Ogden, UT
- 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
- Approach
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical 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
- Manufacturer › Maintenance, adjustment, incorrect
- Throttle/power lever, linkage › Incorrect
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Prior to accepting delivery of the new helicopter, the pilot noticed a 4 percent decay in rotor rpm when the collective control was lowered after landing, activating the aural and visual LOW ROTOR RPM warnings. After a few seconds, engine and rotor speed returned to normal. The engine manufacturer said it should be of no concern as long as it operated normally during flight, but suggested adjusting the linear variable differential transducer after they ferried the helicopter home. On the day of the accident, the pilot intended to make a low pass and land at a hospital helipad. He lowered the collective control and noticed rotor rpm had decreased to 96 percent. The LOW ROTOR RPM warnings activated. He realized he was too low to attempt an autorotation. He reduced collective and pitch attitude further. RPM drooped to 90 percent, and stabilized. Approximately 20 to 30 feet above the helipad, the pilot raised the collective control to flare for landing. RPM rapidly deteriorated. The aircraft impacted the helipad in a tail-down position, rolled over, and came to rest on its left side. The operator found the rotary variable differential transformer rigged at 57.9 degrees of twist grip travel at the Flight Gate position. According to the A119 maintenance manual, the device is supposed to be rigged to achieve 60 degree (+ or - 1 degree). The operator said misrigging of the rotary variable differential transducer would cause incorrect fuel scheduling to the fuel control unit.
Probable cause
improper rigging of the rotary variable differential transformer by the manufacturer, resulting in incorrect fuel scheduling to the fuel control unit.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN02LA010
- Event ID
- 20011204X02353
- Case number
- DEN02LA010
- 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: e7fb2d9f5a80793c38e69e18f119892a9d6094dfe3fb9ebee040dce0b393a142; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:49:20.098Z.