NYC06LA121 · Eurocopter AS-350BA
Eurocopter AS-350BA · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Pine Valley Airport (19N) to Glen Falls, NY
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC06LA121
- 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 AS-350BA
- Aircraft type
- Eurocopter AS-350
- 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
- C-GGLM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Pine Valley Airport (19N), Camden, NJTo Glen Falls, 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
- 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
- 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
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
About 45 minutes into a cross-country flight, the helicopter experienced a hydraulic system failure. The pilot subsequently elected to perform a precautionary landing in a field. During the landing attempt, the pilot slowed the helicopter and it began to yaw left. The pilot attempted to correct the yaw, but was unable to overcome the "stiffness" of the right anti-torque pedal. The helicopter continued to yaw left, landed "hard," and rolled over. Examination of the helicopter's hydraulic system revealed that the hydraulic pump drive shaft splines and the attaching drive coupling splines were severely worn, to the point that they could no longer drive the hydraulic pump. Metallurgical hardness testing of both the drive shaft and the coupling revealed that the surfaces of the splines were below the manufacturer's specified hardness. Examination of the grease found trapped between the remaining portions of the hydraulic shaft pump splines revealed that it was hard packed and gray colored, suggesting that it had been in place for a significant period of time. The minimal amount of grease observed in the coupling sleeve did not satisfy the "generously filled" description referred to in the manufacturer's service bulletin, and required by a subsequent airworthiness directive. Examination of the helicopter's maintenance records revealed that since the issuance of the airworthiness directive, the helicopter had not been in compliance with either the calendar or flight time requirements. The helicopter's flight manual cautioned pilots operating the helicopter without hydraulic assistance, "Do not attempt to carry out hover flight or any low speed maneuver. The intensity and direction of the control feedback forces will change rapidly. This will result in excessive pilot workload, poor aircraft control, and possible loss of control."
Probable cause
Improper maintenance of the hydraulic pump/coupling, which resulted in a failure of the hydraulic flight control system. Factors included the substandard materials of the hydraulic pump drive shaft and coupling, and the pilot's failure to maintain an adequate airspeed during the landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC06LA121
- Event ID
- 20060607X00706
- Case number
- NYC06LA121
- 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: fc5884b7846cdef492479d14be1f52458e112f1b72f2f4ce42ed2d4f040260f6; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:45:45.196Z.