CEN11GA218 · Hughes 369D
Quicksilver Air Hughes 369D · Accident: part(s) separation from aircraft while maneuvering
From Meeker Airport (EEO) to Meeker Airport (EEO)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN11GA218
- 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
- Government
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Hughes 369D
- Aircraft type
- Hughes 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
- N131AL
- Operator
- Quicksilver Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Meeker Airport (EEO), Meeker, COTo Meeker Airport (EEO), Meeker, CO
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Part(s) separation from aircraft
- 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 propeller/rotor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While conducting deer capture operations,the crew felt a shudder or jolt through the helicopter and collective. The first jolt was immediately followed by a bang, at which time the helicopter started to rotate to the right. The helicopter pitched nose down with forward movement as it rotated to the right, impacting the ground. The pilot estimated that he was 40 feet above the trees and that the airspeed was between 25 and 30 knots when the shudder or jolt occurred. The empennage was located 70 feet to the east of where the helicopter came to rest. Examination of the helicopter, engine, and related systems revealed no mechanical anomalies. Metallurgical examination revealed features consistent with overstress separations on all fractures in the tail boom and the driveshaft. The damage and mode of separation of the empennage was consistent with an impact from a main rotor blade. The manufacturer noted that main rotor contact with the fuselage is only possible with a low rotor rpm state or with flight outside of the approved operational envelope. However, the pilot indicated that there were no bells, horns, or warnings prior to the bang and that he did not receive a low rotor warning or a chip light; the investigation was unable to conclude that low rotor rpm or flight outside of the approved operational envelope led to the separation of the tail boom.
Probable cause
Main rotor contact with the tail boom resulting in tail boom separation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN11GA218
- Event ID
- 20110308X74656
- Case number
- CEN11GA218
- 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: 51a02c58e02db782e2f3b0651c8ff061c6282c9960e2138d02bf771d6917efe7; retrieved 2026-09-15T15:53:31.406Z.