WPR11LA048 · MD Helicopter 369D
Precision Helicopters MD Helicopter 369D · Accident: external load event (Rotorcraft) while maneuvering
From Salem, OR to Salem, OR
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR11LA048
- 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
MD Helicopter 369D
- Aircraft type
- MD Helicopters 369
- 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
- N155PH
- Operator
- Precision Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Salem, ORTo Salem, OR
- Aircraft age
- About 33 years (built 1977)
- 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 · 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
- External load event (Rotorcraft)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft propeller/rotor
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he was transporting tree bundles on a 25-foot longline. He placed a tree bundle on a truck and then went to pick up another load. He looked outside to set up for final approach to deliver the hook to ground personnel. He then lowered the collective, applied aft cyclic to slow the helicopter, and applied the right pedal to turn the helicopter, which allowed him the best possible view of the ground personnel. Just as he applied the right pedal, the pilot felt and heard a bang; the helicopter immediately started to shudder and then pitched forward violently with a left yaw. The pilot subsequently set up for an autorotation, and, after touchdown in a level attitude with a slight forward speed, the pilot-side landing gear collapsed.
During the postaccident examination of the helicopter at the accident site, a portion of the longline cable and/or wire was located beside a 7- to 9-foot-tall tree that had a section of its top broken off. The tail rotor was found 20 to 30 feet away. It is likely that the hook assembly snagged the tree, which swayed up to a point, pulled the longline taut, and turned the helicopter right. When the treetop broke away, the helicopter suddenly yawed left and pitched forward. The longline recoiled into the main rotor, which resulted in rotor damage, severe imbalance, and a loss of helicopter control. The pilot stated that he did not observe or feel the longline hook get hung up or dragged through the trees.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain clearance between the longline and trees, which resulted in the longline snagging a tree and then recoiling into the main rotor blades and a subsequent loss of helicopter control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR11LA048
- Event ID
- 20101115X73149
- Case number
- WPR11LA048
- 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: db3ee5d413d17dddd8ec7a2161305f7006cbf9e9515451c586bf6d09a77476a5; retrieved 2026-09-15T15:34:00.125Z.