FTW82FRA15 · Aerospatiale SA-360C
Energy Heli Aerospatiale SA-360C · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Hitchcock, TX to Hitchcock, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW82FRA15
- 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-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
- N213EH
- Operator
- Energy Heli
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hitchcock, TXTo Hitchcock, TX
- 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
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel exhaustion; 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Hitchcock, TX, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING A RETURN FLIGHT FROM AN OFFSHORE PLATFORM, THE PILOT ENCOUNTERED STRONG HEADWINDS AND ELECTED TO LAND AT LAKE JACKSON, TEXAS FOR FUEL. HE LACKED A PROPER MODE OF PAYMENT; THEREFORE, HE WAS UNABLE TO PURCHASE FUEL. HE DEPARTED FOR GALVESTON, TEXAS WITH 100 KG OF FUEL REMAINING. WHILE EN ROUTE, HE LANDED NEAR HITCHCOCK, TEXAS WITH A LOW FUEL STATE. THE PILOT LEARNED OF FUEL FACILITIES ABOUT 1 1/2 MILES AWAY AND DEPARTED WITHOUT PASSENGERS WITH ABOUT 25 KG OF FUEL ON BOARD. WHILE EN ROUTE, THE ENGINE LOST POWER AND THE HELICOPTER STRUCK POWERLINES DURING A FORCED LANDING AT NIGHT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW82FRA15
- Event ID
- 20020917X02135
- Case number
- FTW82FRA15
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1982-02-02.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 1a187653c51fafbf4146d5ff7f59078be4282c8656cd3f4f7d35f643217c4188; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:19:48.941Z.