Blue Hawaiian Helicopters Eurocopter AS350 B2 accident
Eurocopter AS350 B2 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Wiakoloa Heli, HI to Hilo International Airport (ITO)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX04LA256
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Eurocopter AS350 B2
- 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
- N196BH
- Operator
- Blue Hawaiian Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wiakoloa Heli, HITo Hilo International Airport (ITO), Hilo, HI
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC); 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 › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot encountered instrument meteorological conditions during an air tour flight. The helicopter's main rotor contacted trees as the pilot was attempting to reverse course; the helicopter then hit hard and rolled over during an emergency landing. During the flight, the pilot heard reports of poor weather conditions along his intended flight path. He chose to fly along a different flight path to avoid the weather. He flew above a scattered, thin layer of clouds, and the weather began changing rapidly and clouds formed and closed in on the helicopter. The pilot descended through a hole trying to regain visual conditions underneath the cloud deck. Once below the clouds, the weather continued to worsen as the clouds and fog continued to surround and engulf the helicopter. Now in instrument conditions, the pilot was attempting to reverse course and climb when the main rotor impacted a tree. The helicopter began vibrating severely and an emergency landing was initiated. During the touchdown, the right skid struck a boulder, and the helicopter rolled onto its side. No mechanical malfunctions were reported with the helicopter. A witness reported that just prior to the accident, weather conditions were sunny and clear, then the fog rapidly came in and surface visibility decreased to 4 feet. She further stated that the rapidly changing weather is common to the area.
Probable cause
the pilot's inadequate planning/decision by his VFR flight into IMC, and his failure to maintain obstacle clearance which resulted in an in-flight collision with a tree. A low ceiling and fog were contributing factors.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX04LA256
- Event ID
- 20040713X00964
- Case number
- LAX04LA256
- 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: c2f59f559e92d98efa33a4e053275a8a54f7ef6b3a8f7094cc1a5612045797b7; retrieved 2026-09-18T15:22:53.594Z.