WPR09LA471 · Arrow Falcon Exporters Inc OH-58A+
Reforestation Services Arrow Falcon Exporters Inc OH-58A+ · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Myrtle Creek, OR to Myrtle Creek, OR
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR09LA471
- 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-58A+
- 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
- N298CP
- Operator
- Reforestation Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Myrtle Creek, ORTo Myrtle Creek, OR
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Loss of engine power (partial)
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter was equipped with aerial application equipment, however, the chemical tanks were empty at the time of the accident. As the helicopter departed the landing zone, the pilot sensed that more power than usual was being required to clear the 10- to 12-foot trees at the edge of the takeoff zone. He checked the engine instruments, which indicated normal readings, and 100 percent torque. Following his instrument check he heard "popping sounds coming from the engine." The pilot said that once over the trees, between 20 and 30 knots airspeed, the helicopter would not accelerate and settled into the trees despite applying full collective. On scene documentation of the rotor blades indicated leading edge damage and upward bending of the blades, indicative of low rotor energy at the time of rotor blade impact with the trees and terrain. Examination of the engine identified leading edge damage to the compressor blades; however, a functional test cell run of the engine revealed it was capable of producing rated horsepower. No airframe anomalies were identified during the airframe examination that could explain the loss of power.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power during takeoff for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR09LA471
- Event ID
- 20090928X10044
- Case number
- WPR09LA471
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2009-09-28.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 8c57d456b5f82d7464bf17dd3b3c73ead07e99c3dd2ae9b43103b03967df6acd; retrieved 2026-09-15T13:21:22.319Z.