MIA03LA047 · Fairchild Hiller FH-1100
Fairchild Hiller FH-1100 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Page Field (FMY) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA03LA047
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Fairchild Hiller FH-1100
- Aircraft type
- Fairchild Hiller FH-1100
- 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
- N543FH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Page Field (FMY), Fort Myers, FLTo not recorded
- 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
- En route · 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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 exhaustion
- 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
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight had departed the airport and was traveling in a northwest bound direction when the pilot reported to the control tower that he was going down. The pilot told investigators that the helicopter's engine had lost all power, and that he performed an autorotation into the river. The pilot was rescued from the water by another helicopter that was in the area, before the helicopter sank. An FAA-supervised examination of the wreckage was conducted at the Lee County Mosquito Control Facility. The examination was assisted by an airframe and powerplant mechanic from the Lee County Mosquito Control Facility. About a tablespoon of fuel was drained from the fuel nozzle line. Approximately 3 ounces of fuel was drained from the fuel pump filter bowl. Four ounces of fuel was drained from the main tank to the pump inline filter and 1.5 quarts of fuel was drained from the main fuel tank. Approximately 22 quarts of brackish water was drain from the main fuel tank. The mechanic stated he remembered during the examination the fuel cap was not secured and no external damage was noted to the engine. No cracks or broken parts, leakages or rods were found when the exterior surface examination of the engine was conducted. A completed NTSB Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident Report (NTSB Form 6120.1/2) was not received.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate preflight/preparation and his in-flight planning/decision which resulted in fuel exhaustion and the loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA03LA047
- Event ID
- 20030129X00125
- Case number
- MIA03LA047
- 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, coordinates. 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: 740ba43fc8721dcfe56605c662861b49ec7c014fbd5601647647ad3d0b51f1d0; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:33:24.200Z.