LAX08LA195 · Arrow Falcon Exporters, Inc. OH-58C
Double Tree Helicopters Arrow Falcon Exporters, Inc. OH-58C · Accident: powerplant system/component malfunction/failure during takeoff
From Fresno, CA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX08LA195
- 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
Arrow Falcon Exporters, Inc. OH-58C
- Aircraft type
- Arrow Falcon Exporters OH-58
- 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
- N912HP
- Operator
- Double Tree Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fresno, CATo 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- Powerplant system/component malfunction/failure
- 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 › Aircraft power plant
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 reported that he had filled the spray tanks with water and had lifted off from a platform on the back of a truck when he heard three loud noises followed by a loss of engine power. The pilot initiated a hovering autorotation to the landing platform; however, was only able to maneuver the forward portion of the helicopter over the platform. Subsequently, the helicopter slid off the platform and impacted the ground tail boom first, resulting in structural damage to the tail boom and fuselage. Examination of the engine revealed that 15 third stage compressor vanes were fractured near the root and had separated. The majority of the separated vanes were located in the lower compressor case half. The remaining attached vanes were bent over in the direction of engine rotation. A single second stage compressor vane located in the lower case halve was fractured near the root and had liberated. Multiple third and fourth stage compressor blades had leading edge damage. One second stage vane airfoil was separated and the area of separation was found consistent with high cycle fatigue (HCF). An additional second stage vane airfoil exhibited a crack, consistent with HCF near the root, but it did not separate. A Semi-quantitative x-ray energy dispersive analysis (XEDA) revealed deposits at the suction side vane root were consistent with oxidized braze alloy, indicating the braze alloy was exposed during engine operation. It was also found that the chemistry, microstructure and hardness of the second stage vanes were consistent with component specifications.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power due to fatigue failure of a second stage compressor blade.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX08LA195
- Event ID
- 20080708X00990
- Case number
- LAX08LA195
- 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: 9d17a79fca8cfdb438f711cee67baa0c3b0df5dc03fe4acad0a810a533b0c92d; retrieved 2026-09-15T09:51:48.253Z.