Hawkins and Powers Helicopters Aerospatiale SA316B accident
Aerospatiale SA316B · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From SPAR MOUNTAIN, WY to WOOD RIVER LODG, WY
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN82DA130
- 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 SA316B
- Aircraft type
- Aerospatiale SA316
- 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
- N67081
- Operator
- Hawkins and Powers Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From SPAR MOUNTAIN, WYTo WOOD RIVER LODG, WY
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Clearance, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
PRIOR TO THIS FLIGHT, A LONG LINE HAD BEEN ATTACHED TO THE HELICOPTER FOR AN EXTERNAL LOAD OPERATION. HOWEVER, THERE WASA CHANGE IN THE SCHEDULE AND THE PILOT WAS INSTRUCTED TO RETURN TO THE BASE CAMP WITH SIX PASSENGERS. WHEN THE PILOT TOOK OFF, HE WAS UNAWARE THAT THE LONG LINE WAS STILL ATTACHRD. DURING THE LANDING APPROACH, THE LONG LINE BECAME ENTANGLED WITH A FENCE AND THE AIRCRAFT CRASHED. THE ELEVATION OF THE LANDING SITE WAS ABOUT 7000 FT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN82DA130
- Event ID
- 20020917X03153
- Case number
- DEN82DA130
- 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 1982-07-08.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 923e2486ab9a120f9ac657388598782e100c4d8b6fbbd285af842a11e0788892; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:08:27.899Z.