Bauer Helicopter S.N.I.A.S. AS350 accident
S.N.I.A.S. AS350 · Accident: propeller/rotor contact to person while standing
From GOLD STRIKE, NV to GOLD STRIKE, NV
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX82DA147
- 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
- 1 · 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
S.N.I.A.S. AS350
- Aircraft type
- S AS350
- 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
- N5768Z
- Operator
- Bauer Helicopter
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From GOLD STRIKE, NVTo GOLD STRIKE, NV
- 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
- Standing · idling rotors
- 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
- Propeller/rotor contact to person
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Company/operator management › Unsafe/hazardous condition, performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER HAD JUST RETURNED FROM A SIGHTSEEING TOUR OF THE GRAND CANYON. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT THE PASSENGERS WANTED TO GET OUT WHILE THE HELICOPTER WAS UNDERGOING ITS TWO-MINUTE, COOL-DOWN PERIOD. THE PILOT ESCORTED FOUR OF THE PASSENGERS FROM THE HELICOPTER WHILE AN ATTENDANT WAS ASSISTING A FIFTH PASSENGER IN UNLOADING HER POSSESSIONS. A GUST OF WIND REMOVED THE FIFTH PASSENGER'S HAT, AND SHE WAS STRUCK BY THE MOVING TAIL ROTOR AS SHE CHASED THE HAT. THE PASSENGER DIED SHORTLY AFTER SHE WAS TRANSPORTED TO A LOCAL HOSPITAL. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT THE OPERATOR HAD 30 TO 40 FLIGHTS A DAY AND THAT THE AIRCRAFT WERE NOT SHUT DOWN BETWEEN FLIGHTS, BUT THAT THE PASSENGERS WERE ESCORTED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX82DA147
- Event ID
- 20020917X02228
- Case number
- LAX82DA147
- 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: f7c85e2628e56b7985186c0201b4f11a99494d7dca36779cd17e884886945441; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:32:50.633Z.