ATL07LA045 · Hiller UH-12A
Hiller UH-12A · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Bethlehem, GA (private airstrip) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL07LA045
- 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
- 2 · 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
Hiller UH-12A
- Aircraft type
- Hiller UH-12
- 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
- N8180H
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bethlehem, GA (private airstrip)To not recorded
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Aircraft performance, takeoff capability › Exceeded
- Pilot in command › Rotor RPM, 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 commercial pilot attempted a downwind departure at or about maximum gross weight in a very tight landing zone with high obstacles, forcing the pilot to use rotor energy to gain altitude which would have slowed rotor RPM below safe operating limits. With a tailwind the engine had insufficient power for the helicopter to reach transitional lift. Once the pilot determined that he could not regain rotor speed, he would have selected an area in the woods to try and descend. Rotor RPM would have continued to decay and the pilot would have initiated an Auto-Rotation. The pilot closed the throttle as noted by the crushed throttle linkage. The tail-rotor descended into the trees as evidenced by impact marks to the leading edge of the tail-rotor blades. The engine was still developing power to the rotor system as observed in the twisting of the tail-rotor drive shaft aft of the tail-rotor universal joint. The helicopter descended through the trees vertically and nosed down when the main rotor blades exited the helicopter. The metal strip on the main rotor blades contacted the tail boom at the rear universal joint of the tail rotor drive shaft. The helicopter impacted the ground. The transmission and rotor system crushed the flight deck. Examination of the helicopter found no preimpact mechanical failure or malfunctions that would have prevented the helicopter from operating properly.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain adequate rotor rpm, which resulted in an attempted autorotation and in-flight collision with trees. Contributing to the severity of the accident was the pilot exceeding the helicopters takeoff capability.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL07LA045
- Event ID
- 20070226X00225
- Case number
- ATL07LA045
- 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: 42890ff062ab86d239fefd73beb1b68e29357e8ebf9f13bd22730635305b4d3b; retrieved 2026-09-20T16:49:43.600Z.