DFW07LA011 · Sikorsky S-76A++
Sikorsky S-76A++ · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during landing
From MCY · Amelia, LA to Eugene Is. 259, GM
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW07LA011
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Sikorsky S-76A++
- 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
- N22342
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From MCY · Amelia, LATo Eugene Is. 259, GM
- 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
- 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 terrain/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Flightcrew › Clearance, not maintained
- Flightcrew › Diverted attention
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The two crewmembers (pilot and copilot) of the twin-engine helicopter were scheduled to fly to an offshore oil platform located about 60 miles from their shore base. The helicopter was inadvertently flown into the water while the attention of both crewmembers was diverted to arming the emergency float system and activating the windshield wipers. The flight crew had made two unsuccessful attempts to pick up a passenger on the previous day, and had been unable to reach the platform due to inclement weather in the area. Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) prevailed as the crew attempted to locate and land on the platform. The copilot, who reported having accumulated a total of 10 hours in the same make and model, reported that while performing the pre-landing checklist, the helicopter impacted the water in a near-level attitude. The 16,848-hours helicopter pilot and the 1,371-hours copilot were able to egress from the helicopter and were able to swim for 2.5 hours to an abandoned platform, from which they were rescued by helicopter. The emergency float equipped helicopter rolled over and sank. The helicopter was located and recovered a few days after the mishap. The flight crew reported that there were no maintenance problems or malfunctions with the helicopter prior to their inadvertent impact with the water.
Probable cause
The flight crew's failure to maintain clearance with the water and their diverted attention to secondary tasks while preparing to land. Contributing factor were the low ceilings and the heavy rains restricting their visibility.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW07LA011
- Event ID
- 20061101X01599
- Case number
- DFW07LA011
- 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: 7cbaa8f9a8870ee2bcd79daff4f0a5492faa15e4f287c9056ac8a56d145526a3; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:39:40.172Z.