ERA10LA499 · Bell OH-58A
Cahaba Forestry Services Bell OH-58A · Accident: loss of engine power (total) while maneuvering
From Taylorsville, MS (no airport) to Taylorsville, MS (no airport)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA10LA499
- 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
Bell OH-58A
- Aircraft type
- Bell 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
- N132HD
- Operator
- Cahaba Forestry Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Taylorsville, MS (no airport)To Taylorsville, MS (no airport)
- 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
- Maneuvering · low-altitude flying
- 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 (total)
- 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 as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter pilot was surveying a field in preparation for aerial application. While he was maneuvering the helicopter about 100 feet above the ground, the engine lost all power without warning. The pilot noticed a space in between the trees and attempted to autorotate to that spot, but the helicopter impacted trees nearby. A postaccident examination of the wreckage revealed 16 gallons of fuel remained in the helicopter and no fuel contamination was observed. A successful test-run of the engine was subsequently performed. Examination of the fuel boost pump revealed that the inlet shut-off valve arm was bent, which could restrict fuel flow. When power was applied to the pump, it pumped fuel from a bucket; however, it did not appear to pump the fuel at maximum capacity. Further testing was performed utilizing both the bent arm and a replacement stock arm. The test results were similar for both arms, which were both below the pump's flow requirements. The bent arm was re-installed and a third examination was conducted at the pump manufacturer's facility, which revealed that the pump's ring tong terminals and pump cartridge were the incorrect models for the fuel boost pump; however, during the third test, the pump passed flow tests as received, and flow improved when the inlet valve stem assembly and cartridge were replaced. The bent inlet shut-off valve arm and/or incorrect fuel boost pump assembly could have resulted in a total loss of engine power; however, the investigation could not determine what, if any, effect they had on the helicopter at the time of the accident.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power while maneuvering at low altitude for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA10LA499
- Event ID
- 20100924X35823
- Case number
- ERA10LA499
- 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. 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: 0b4b1dad88f42fcae543676dbeba043fb761cec681522a36837c36747b67c382; retrieved 2026-09-15T15:20:21.556Z.