DEN82DTI15 · Aerospatiale SA 315B
Continental Heli Aerospatiale SA 315B · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From White Sulphur Springs, MT to White Sulphur Springs, MT
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN82DTI15
- 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 315B
- Aircraft type
- Aerospatiale SA-315
- 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
- N5785V
- Operator
- Continental Heli
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From White Sulphur Springs, MTTo White Sulphur Springs, MT
- 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 133: Rotorcraft Ext. Load
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Pickup equipment › Not removed
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT LANDED BESIDE A SMALL BUILDING (CALLED A DOG HOUSE) WHICH CONTAINED SEISMIC INSTRUMENTS AND RECORDING EQUIPMENT. HE WAS SCHEDULED TO MOVE THE BUILDING AND HOOKED A LONG LINE FROM IT TO THE HELICOPTER. AFTER WAITING ABOUT 45 MINUTES FOR FINAL INSTRUCTIONS, HE RECEIVED A CALL TO LOOK FOR A POWDER BAG THAT WAS LOST. THE PILOT FORGOT THAT THE LONG LINE WAS ATTACHED TO THE SMALL BUILDING AND TOOK OFF. AFTER REACHING THE END OF THE LONG LINE, THE HELICOPTER WAS JERKED TO THE GROUND AND CRASHED. A MEMBER OF THE SEISMIC CREW WAS IN THE BUILDING AND RECEIVED MINOR INJURIES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN82DTI15
- Event ID
- 20020917X03203
- Case number
- DEN82DTI15
- 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: a890df034169d622218c92bb8c51bdcf758cbbbca31d96e6e0ef332b448019bb; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:13:42.244Z.