SEA83FA009 · Boeing Vertol 107
Columbia Helicopters Boeing Vertol 107 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From Cascade, ID to Cascade, ID
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA83FA009
- 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
- 2 · 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
Boeing Vertol 107
- Aircraft type
- Boeing Vertol 107
- 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
- N6676D
- Operator
- Columbia Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cascade, IDTo Cascade, ID
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Production/design personnel › Inadequate quality control
- Rotor drive system, engine to transmission drive › Disabled
- Rotor drive system, engine to transmission drive › Failure, total
- Rotor drive system, engine to transmission drive › Fatigue
- Rotor drive system, engine to transmission drive › Improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING A LOG SLINGING OPERATION A LOUD BANG WAS HEARD & THE ACFT WAS OBSERVED TO RAPIDLY DESCEND VERTICALLY TO THE GROUND WITH NUMEROUS SMALL FRAGMENTS FALLING IN THE SAME VICINITY. THE #5 SYNCHRONIZATION SHAFT WAS FOUND TO BE FRACTURED AT THE FORWARD END ABOUT 9 INCHES AFT OF THE CONNECTION ASSY TO THE #4 SHAFT. THIS RESULTED IN AN OUT OF SYNCHRONIZATION CONDITION BETWEEN THE FORWARD & AFT ROTOR BLADES AS WELL AS A LOSS OF POWER TO THE FORWARD ROTOR. A FATIGUE FRACTURE ORIGINATED IN THE AFT MOST RING OF RIVET HOLES. THE FATIGUE CRACKS PROPOGATED FROM MULTIPLE ORIGINS WITHIN THOSE RIVET HOLES WHERE A "STEP" WAS FOUND AT THE BASE OF THE HOLE & CLOSEST TO THE INSIDE DIAMETER OF THE SHAFT.ALL RIVET HOLES IN THE FORWARD END OF THE SHAFT HAD TOPOGRAPHIC FEATURES SIMILAR TO THOSE PRODUCED IN A STEEL PLATE BY DELIBERATELY DRILLING HOLES WITHOUT COMPLETE PENETRATIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA83FA009
- Event ID
- 20020917X05130
- Case number
- SEA83FA009
- 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: 328147311941b0ed595e204b9ccdbc94d427e3b3bfc141d0230ddaa577e6545a; retrieved 2026-09-21T07:40:16.123Z.