LAX03TA229 · Sikorsky S-64E
Sikorsky S-64E · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Tucson International Airport (KTUS) to Sabino Helispot, AZ
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX03TA229
- 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
Sikorsky S-64E
- Aircraft type
- Sikorsky S-64
- 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
- N6979R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tucson International Airport (KTUS), Tucson, AZTo Sabino Helispot, AZ
- 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 · hover in ground effect
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After a series of water drops were conducted on a forest fire, the helicopter's crew refilled the fixed tank with water from a dip tank via a snorkel. The dip tank was located in mountainous terrain and there were two mesquite trees near the tank. During the refilling operation, the tail rotor blades contacted the trees; however, the flight crew was unaware of the strike. The tail rotor blade damage was noticed when ground personnel detected damage to the number one exhaust stack, and the helicopter was inspected further. One of the four tail rotor blades incurred spar damage on the leading edge, approximately 14.5 inches from the tip end.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to maintain tail rotor clearance while hovering resulting in a tail rotor blade strike.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX03TA229
- Event ID
- 20030714X01084
- Case number
- LAX03TA229
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2003-07-08.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 61315222e5eb63300fe8e607dcc2062a0f9e32a8307cac3f1c0be6171fe711a3; retrieved 2026-09-22T09:02:33.781Z.