Petroleum Helicopters S.N.I.A.S. SA-330J accident
S.N.I.A.S. SA-330J · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Cape Cod Gateway Airport (HYA) to Cape Cod Gateway Airport (HYA)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC82FNA17
- 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
S.N.I.A.S. SA-330J
- Aircraft type
- S SA-330
- 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
- N3601U
- Operator
- Petroleum Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cape Cod Gateway Airport (HYA), Hyannis, MATo Cape Cod Gateway Airport (HYA), Hyannis, MA
- 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
- En route · climb to 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, improper
- Rotor system, main rotor hub yoke(spindle) › Chafed
- Rotor system, main rotor hub yoke(spindle) › Fatigue
- Rotor system, main rotor hub yoke(spindle) › Undertorqued
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Hyannis, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT HE TOOK OFF, AND DURING A CLIMB THROUGH ABOUT 800 FT, HE HEARD A LOUD SNAP AND IMMEDIATELY FELT SEVERE LATERAL VIBRATIONS. HE DECLARED AN EMERGENCY AND LANDED WITHOUT FURTHER INCIDENT. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE INBOARD TRAILING EAR OF THE MAIN ROTOR SLEEVE/SPINDLE ASSEMBLY, PN 330A31-002607, FOR THE BLUE BLADE, HAD FAILED. EVIDENCE OF FATIGUE WAS FOUND OVER MOST OF THE FRACTURE SURFACE AND EVIDENCE OF FRETTING CORROSION WAS FOUND AT THE ORIGIN OF THE FATIGUE. ALSO, AN AREA OF FRETTING CORROSION WAS FOUND ON THE TRAILING SIDE FLANGE OF THE HINGE PIN, ON A SURFACE CLAMPED BY THE TORQUE OF THE HINGE PIN NUT. RECORDS SHOWED THAT THE AEROSPATIALE SERVICE BULLETIN 01.35 HAD BEEN COMPLIED WITH ON 3/30/82, AND THAT THE HINGE PIN HAD BEEN REPLACED ON 4/10/82, ABOUT 100 FLIGHT HOURS BEFORE THE FAILURE. A SPOT CHECK OF THE MAINTENANCE FACILITY REVEALED THAT 2 OUT OF 3 TORQUE WRENCHES WERE OVERDUE A CALIBRATION CHECK. THE THIRD PROVIDED 54 INCH LBS WHEN SET FOR 120.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC82FNA17
- Event ID
- 20020917X04056
- Case number
- NYC82FNA17
- 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: 858734d36e08de72f952fd397e683e9dae4c38569ce798e82f62f5340ddd8427; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:08:52.665Z.