LAX04CA097 · Eurocopter AS350 B3
Petroleum Helicopters Eurocopter AS350 B3 · Accident: hard landing
From Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) to Falcon Field (FFZ)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX04CA097
- 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
Eurocopter AS350 B3
- Aircraft type
- Eurocopter AS350
- 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
- N970AE
- Operator
- Petroleum Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), Phoenix, AZTo Falcon Field (FFZ), Falcon Field, 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 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Hard landing
- 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
- Dual student › Collective, improper use of
- Dual student › Flare, excessive
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Remedial action, delayed
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Rotor RPM, not maintained
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, 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 helicopter landed hard and rolled over during a practice autorotation. The purpose of the flight was for the flight instructor to give the flying pilot the recurrent flight checks required by 14 CFR Part 135. They entered a landing pattern parallel to 22R. At 500 feet above ground level (agl) and 80 knots indicated airspeed (IAS), the flight instructor initiated an engine failure. The pilot responded appropriately and entered an autorotation with 60 knots IAS and 398 rpm rotor speed (Nr). At 60 feet agl, the pilot began the flare; however, it was more aggressive than necessary for the conditions. The pilot then lowered the nose after being advised by the flight instructor to do so. At 30 feet agl, the pilot began to increase the collective; the Nr dropped to 380. The flight instructor announced, "I am on the controls with you," and then, "I have the controls." The flight instructor leveled the helicopter and reduced the collective. About 5 feet agl, the flight instructor initiated the final collective application. As the Nr decreased, the tail rotor lost effectiveness; the helicopter yawed to the left with full right anti-torque pedal applied. The helicopter touched down and the nose was approximately 15 degrees to the left of the direction of travel. The right skid touched down and the helicopter drifted to the right. The helicopter then rolled to the right despite corrective inputs by the flight instructor. The front portion of the right skid dug into the soft turf and pivoted the helicopter forward and the main rotor blades contacted the ground. No mechanical malfunctions were reported.
Probable cause
the pilot's excessive flare and mistimed collective application during a practice autorotation, which resulted in a loss of main rotor rpm and a subsequent hard landing. Also causal, was the flight instructor's delayed remedial action and inadequate supervision of the flight. The soft terrain was a factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX04CA097
- Event ID
- 20040203X00161
- Case number
- LAX04CA097
- 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: e95baa576f35b5d65d170787ee8b9c6e0efca67a08f4ae5c8b1792f87ee7837f; retrieved 2026-09-22T08:00:48.943Z.