IAD05LA135 · Sikorsky S-76B
ExcelAire Service Sikorsky S-76B · Accident: propeller/rotor contact to person while standing
From Linden Airport (LDJ) to Westchester County Airport (HPN)
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD05LA135
- 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-76B
- Aircraft type
- Sikorsky S-76
- 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
- N14CS
- Operator
- ExcelAire Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Linden Airport (LDJ), Linden, NJTo Westchester County Airport (HPN), White Plains, NY
- 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
- Standing
- 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
- Propeller/rotor contact to person
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- Fbo personnel › 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
The helicopter was taxied to the fixed fuel pump, and engine power was reduced to idle. As the main rotor continued to turn, a lineman approached the helicopter from the 11 o'clock position. He initially bent down as he proceeded toward the helicopter, but suddenly stood upright, and was struck by the helicopter's rotor. The fueling operator conducted no formal training of lineman, and what "on-the-job training" was conducted, was not documented. On the lineman's application for employment he stated that he had previous experience operating in a military aviation environment. According to the accident helicopter's flight manual, "Some persons may have prior experience with helicopters for which approach from the front is preferred. Approach from the front of an S-76 is not permitted. It is essential that all persons are properly informed regarding the safe approach/departure angles of the S-76."
Probable cause
The lineman's failure to maintain adequate clearance from the main rotor system. A factor was his lack of familiarity with the accident helicopter make and model.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD05LA135
- Event ID
- 20050926X01530
- Case number
- IAD05LA135
- 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, damage. 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: 3a42dabadae7213bbcc9a51b65caa438bc4044940d077dc4e83b88af94b3165f; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:03:32.348Z.