DEN83LA007 · Hiller UH-12C
Hiller UH-12C · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) while maneuvering
From Blanding Municipal Airport (BDG) to Blanding Municipal Airport (BDG)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN83LA007
- 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
Hiller UH-12C
- Aircraft type
- Hiller UH-12
- 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
- N5316V
- Operator
- Kenneth J. Davis · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Blanding Municipal Airport (BDG), Blanding, UTTo Blanding Municipal Airport (BDG), Blanding, UT
- 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
- Maneuvering · hover
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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 contamination
- 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 › Contamination
- Fuel system, carburetor › Blocked(total)
- Pilot in command › Maintenance, service of aircraft/equipment, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Blanding, UT, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PRIVATE SINGLE-ENGINE PILOT HAD A STUDENT HELICOPTER CERTIFICATE. HE TOOK OFF TO HOVER AND CHECK THAT THE HELICOPTER WAS IN GOOD CONDITION. HE STATED THAT BEFORE TAKEOFF, THE HELICOPTER WAS FUELED WITH A 5 GALLON CAN THAT HAD BEEN PAINTED RED. BEFORE REFUELING, HE RINSED THE CAN AND THEN USED A SPOUT STRAINER TO ADD ABOUT 10 GALLONS OF FUEL. AFTER WARMING THE ENGINE AND TAKING OFF, THE HELICOPTER FLEW ABOUT 50 SECONDS AND THEN THE ENGINE COUGHED AND LOST POWER. AN AUTOROTATION WAS INITIATED FROM ABOUT 50 FT AND 35 MPH. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE HELICOPTER LANDED HARD, THE ROTOR BLADES FLEXED DOWNWARD AND SEVERED THE TAIL BOOM, A FUEL TANK RUPTURED AND THE HELICOPTER BURNED. DISASSEMBLY OF THE CARBURETOR REVEALED THAT THE MAIN JET WAS BLOCKED. PARTICLES OF RED PAINT (THAT MATCHED THE PAINT ON THE FUEL CAN) WERE FOUND NEAR THE BLOCKAGE. ALSO, THE HELICOPTER HAD LITTLE OR NO USE IN RECENT YEARS. REPORTEDLY, RESIDUAL GUM MAY HAVE ACCUMULATED DURING THE YEARS AND/OR THE FUEL MAY HAVE GUMMED THE RED PAINT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN83LA007
- Event ID
- 20020917X04556
- Case number
- DEN83LA007
- 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: 8b18925aba6240a918b4e9ecf11834d621eba53218a3cdc0884dc9963e37c5b3; retrieved 2026-09-24T00:27:28.022Z.