CHI08FA141 · Sikorsky S-76A
Aero Med Spectrum Health Sikorsky S-76A · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing
From Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GRR) to an unrecorded destination
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's flight rules. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI08FA141
- 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
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
- N176SH
- Operator
- Aero Med Spectrum Health
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GRR), Grand Rapids, MITo 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 Possible conflict
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The air ambulance helicopter was departing from a hospital heliport that was located on the 11th story of the hospital during an FAA Part 135 check. Before takeoff, the pilots discussed the construction cranes that were operating on the north side of the hospital and their effect on the approach and departure routes to the pad. The pilot reported that he lifted the helicopter straight up into a vertical takeoff. The torque was about 94 percent and "everything was nominal." The helicopter was about 40 feet in the air when the pilot heard a "pop" and the helicopter started to yaw to the right and vibrate. He attempted to land back on the helicopter pad by using the cyclic and lowering the collective, but the main rotor blades impacted the 32-foot high brick structure located east of the helicopter pad. The helicopter fell straight down impacting the hospital roof. Witnesses observed the helicopter lift off the helipad and then fly backwards until the tail rotor hit a tower on top of the roof. A hospital security video camera showed the helicopter fly backwards as it lifted off the helicopter pad. It showed that the tail rotor appeared to strike an object on one of the towers, and the tail rotor immediately shattered and the helicopter went into a right yaw. A camera that was mounted on one of the towers exhibited impact marks and carbon fibers were found lodged in a crevice of the camera body. Based on the analysis of the accident site, the helicopter traveled about 61 feet straight-line distance rearwards at an angle of about 41-51 degrees relative to the hospital pad. The time from takeoff to impact with the camera was about 11.37 seconds. The inspection of the helicopter revealed no preexisting anomalies that would preclude normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain tail rotor obstacle clearance from a tower during takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI08FA141
- Event ID
- 20080603X00779
- Case number
- CHI08FA141
- 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: a158a8b6f8cc8547e287cc6c81cba7fc78c31e7cbbee1c979152287a918a5cca; retrieved 2026-09-15T09:43:19.060Z.