LAX05LA308 · Eurocopter AS350B3
Eurocopter AS350B3 · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Running Springs, CA to Running Springs, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX05LA308
- 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 AS350B3
- 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
- N814CE
- Operator
- Southern California Edison
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Running Springs, CATo Running Springs, CA
- 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
- 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
The helicopter was performing external load operations in the vicinity of tall trees when the main rotor impacted a tree and the helicopter descended nose first into the ground. At the time of rotor impact with the trees, the Vehicle Engine Monitoring Display (VEMD) recorded a high torque measurement (146 percent) and a low engine drive speed measurement (184 rpm), followed by a low torque (5.7 percent) and a high engine speed (511 rpm) and temperature (999C). As a result of the main rotor impact with trees the engine's torque twisted apart the engine to transmission drive shaft causing an engine over speed and over temperature condition. The operator was utilizing a 78.8-foot-long line for the external load operations, which in some cases put the main rotor of the helicopter below the treetops of the 80- to 90-foot trees. Examination of the helicopter revealed no evidence of a preimpact malfunction or failure of the control system or power plant.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain an adequate clearance from trees while performing long line external lift operations.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX05LA308
- Event ID
- 20050927X01537
- Case number
- LAX05LA308
- 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: ee6734f8ab558a00d340424707ca3ee57e560c2156e968b7a8f06331b437b5ed; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:03:05.896Z.