DFW07GA119 · Eurocopter AS 350 B3
US Border Patrol Air Operations Eurocopter AS 350 B3 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From El Paso International Airport (KELP) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW07GA119
- 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
- 1 · 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
- Government
- 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 350 B3
- 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
- N851BP
- Operator
- US Border Patrol Air Operations
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From El Paso International Airport (KELP), El Paso, TXTo 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
- Public Aircraft
- 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 · hover out of ground effect
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not possible
- Pilot in command › Vortex ring state, encountered
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter was reported to have been maneuvering at a low airspeed at an altitude of approximately 150 feet above the ground while on a patrol flight near an international border. Local authorities reported that the helicopter impacted a parked pickup truck in a nose-low attitude while in a right turn, coming to rest on its right side. Witnesses said that the helicopter "appeared to dip the nose-down and enter a spin to the right nearly straight down. One witness added that the helicopter appeared to have recovered from the spin and initiated a climb before it began to spin to the right again, impacting the ground in a near-vertical attitude. Other witnesses added that the engine appeared to be "screaming." A witness, who reported having experience as a helicopter mechanic, added that the engine was screaming, but that the rotor system sounded as though it was slowing down. One witness stated it sounded like it was sucking or chopping air. The recorded weather near the accident site was reported as winds from 260 degrees at 12 knots, visibility 10 statute miles, clear skies, temperature 23 degrees Celsius, dew point 1 degree Celsius, and a barometric pressure of 29.94 inches of Mercury. Density Altitude was computed to be 5,433 feet MSL, No discrepancies or pre-existing anomalies were found with the helicopter or the engine that could have precluded normal flight. A performance study was conducted to determine the controllability and maneuvering capabilities while operating in the flight environment during the assigned observation mission. The study concluded that at the approximate altitude of 150 feet AGL and an airspeed of 20-30 knots, may not have allowed sufficient time or altitude for the pilot to recover after the helicopter entered a vortex ring state, A fully developed vortex ring state is characterized by an unstable condition where the helicopter experiences uncommanded pitch and roll oscillations, has little or no cyclic authority, and achieves a descent rate which, if allowed to develop, may approach 6000 feet per minute. A vortex ring state may be entered during any maneuver that places the main rotor in a condition of high upflow and low forward airspeed
Probable cause
The pilot's encounter with a vortex ring state and his inability to maintain control of the helicopter.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW07GA119
- Event ID
- 20070530X00664
- Case number
- DFW07GA119
- 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. 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: d6f0c4b0e5febc38ab9aa115b76a753561e5c295e3df2b9f0204048b3c576344; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:34:01.651Z.