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WPR10FA295 · Kaman Aerospace Corp K-1200

16 Jun 2010 · Donnelly, ID, United States

Woody Contracting Kaman Aerospace Corp K-1200 · Accident while maneuvering

From Donnelly, ID to Donnelly, ID

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Event

NTSB case
WPR10FA295
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

Kaman Aerospace Corp K-1200

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
N134WC
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Donnelly, IDTo Donnelly, ID
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 133: Rotorcraft Ext. Load
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
Maneuvering · hover
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
Unknown or undetermined
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 oper/perf/capability
  • 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

While lifting a heavy external load off the ground, the leading edges of two of the logging helicopter's counter-rotating main rotor blades collided with each other. The collision resulted in the destruction of a significant portion of both of those blades and the separation of one of the two main rotor pylons. Control of the helicopter was no longer possible, and it impacted the terrain in the inverted position. Detailed postaccident examinations of the helicopter’s components, tests, and witness interviews did not reveal evidence of any pre-existing anomalies or malfunctions or of any pilot action that would have led to the blades colliding. Although the helicopter was operating at an estimated 288 pounds above its maximum certified gross weight of 12,000 pounds, there is no evidence that this played a role in causing or contributing to the blade-to-blade contact. The event that initiated the accident sequence was not determined.

Probable cause

The collision of two counter-rotating main rotor blades for undetermined reasons, which resulted in a loss of control.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record WPR10FA295
Event ID
20100617X13529
Case number
WPR10FA295
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: f40ae32bcf112cdcad701917ed5f030d0e975eff2c744e5e6f957a058d82f041; retrieved 2026-09-13T20:52:56.151Z.