CHI08FA132 · Fairchild Hiller FH-1100
Fairchild Hiller FH-1100 · Accident: fuel exhaustion on approach
From Kalamazoo, MI to Kalamazoo, MI
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI08FA132
- 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
- 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
Fairchild Hiller FH-1100
- Aircraft type
- Fairchild Hiller FH-1100
- 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
- N5049F
- Operator
- Larry D. Boven · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kalamazoo, MITo Kalamazoo, MI
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- Defining eventThe 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
- Fuel exhaustion
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot purchased the helicopter the day prior to the accident. He was returning to his home airstrip after having flown with a certified flight instructor when the accident occurred. A witness reported hearing a loss of engine noise followed by the impact. The helicopter contacted a 40-foot-tall tree and impacted the ground, coming to rest on its right side. The tree was located near a small clearing in a heavily wooded area. The wreckage was aligned with the end of the pilot's airstrip. Inspection of the helicopter, control systems, engine, and transmission, failed to reveal any anomalies that would have precluded normal operation of the helicopter. Fuel was not visible in the fuel tank. Approximately 2 quarts of fuel were drained from the tank following the accident. There was no evidence of a fuel spill/leak at the accident site. The helicopter has a usable fuel quantity of 66.9 gallons. It has an average cruise airspeed of 85 to 90 miles per hour and it consumes about 22 gallons per hour. The distance from where the helicopter was last fueled to the pilot's airstrip is approximately 82 miles. The pilot then flew approximately 22 miles from his airstrip to pick up his flight instructor. They then flew in the local area for about 1 hour. The certified flight instructor stated that the pilot had departed about 1100 to return to his airstrip. The accident occurred at 1153.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power in flight due to fuel exhaustion resulting from the pilot's inadequate fuel management. Contributing to the accident was the unsuitable terrain for a forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI08FA132
- Event ID
- 20080527X00729
- Case number
- CHI08FA132
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: b07f092fff564b6f26fe42ec6edebae99226094848d2b293b3def100c1b66ef0; retrieved 2026-09-13T19:05:19.052Z.