WPR09TA012 · Bell 407
Arizona Department of Public Safety Bell 407 · Accident: aircraft/propeller/rotor contact with person while standing
From Flagstaff Pulliam Airport (FLG) to Sedona, AZ
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR09TA012
- 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
Bell 407
- Aircraft type
- Bell 407
- 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
- N42AZ
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Flagstaff Pulliam Airport (FLG), Flagstaff, AZTo Sedona, AZ
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) operating
- 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
- Aircraft/propeller/rotor contact with person
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight crew (pilot and paramedic) had been called out on a search and rescue (SAR) mission for two lost hikers. Once the flight arrived on-scene, the crew located the hikers and commenced with the rescue. The pilot reported that he observed a flat rock area near the hikers, and landed at that spot. The skids were on the rock face, with the tail sticking out over the ledge. As the pilot lowered the collective, to place the weight of the helicopter on the skids, he felt a slight fore and aft rocking of the helicopter and decided to maintain main rotor at 100 percent rpm for stability. The paramedic then exited the helicopter, and walked toward the hikers who were forward and slightly uphill of the helicopter. The paramedic assisted the male hiker into the right side of the helicopter, and then returned for the female hiker. The female hiker reported that after the paramedic motioned her toward him, he also pointed out a cactus to her, motioning for her to go around it. The hiker went around the cactus, and then stepped in front of the paramedic who now had his back to the helicopter. She then heard a loud sound and turned back toward the paramedic, and saw him lying on the ground. The paramedic had been struck by the main rotor blades. Reconstruction of the event at the accident site revealed that the helicopter was slightly lower on its right side with the nose slightly elevated. The pilot reported no mechanical anomalies with the helicopter prior to the accident.
Probable cause
The paramedic's failure to monitor and maintain clearance from the rotating main rotor blades after exiting the helicopter.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR09TA012
- Event ID
- 20081014X22933
- Case number
- WPR09TA012
- 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, damage. 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: f5efbad7db798048bacc30afb9086b9871de47847c4133e3a3c43b900336b5ac; retrieved 2026-09-13T19:33:28.617Z.