CHI04LA032 · Hughes TH-55A
Hughes TH-55A · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From West Lafayette, IN (private airstrip) to Purdue University Airport (LAF)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI04LA032
- 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
Hughes TH-55A
- Aircraft type
- Hughes TH-55
- 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
- N9240D
- Operator
- Dennis G. Lockrey · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From West Lafayette, IN (private airstrip)To Purdue University Airport (LAF), Purdue Airport, IN
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Miscellaneous rotorcraft, tail pylon › Fractured
- Unknown › Maintenance, major repair, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter received substantial damage on impact with terrain. The pilot reported he lost directional control and heard a "pop" during climb after takeoff. He then regained directional control and executed an autorotation in night meteorological conditions. Examination of the tail boom right cluster fitting by National Transportation Safety Board metallurgists revealed features consistent with an overload fracture in addition to a preexisting crack. The fracture area contained weld material in the heat treated structure. According to the manufacturer, weld repairs were not allowed in this area. A review of maintenance logs did not reveal any entries pertaining to the welding of the cluster fitting.
Probable cause
The fractured cluster fitting resulting in a loss of directional control during initial climb and the improper repair of cluster fitting by unknown personnel. The night conditions were a contributing factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI04LA032
- Event ID
- 20031209X02015
- Case number
- CHI04LA032
- 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 2003-11-18.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a8abc7bfa2f60a78d6b6aae50297701f248edba1f8ecefea55a06bbf8e345243; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:20:32.454Z.