WPR11FA350 · Sikorsky S-55B
Golden Wings Aviation Sikorsky S-55B · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Chelan, WA to Chelan, WA
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR11FA350
- 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
Sikorsky S-55B
- Aircraft type
- Sikorsky S-55
- 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
- N5663
- Operator
- Golden Wings Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chelan, WATo Chelan, WA
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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 control in flight
- 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
- Wire
- 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
- Personnel issues › Psychological
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 contracted to overfly the rural cherry orchard in order to dry the cherries following rain showers. A witness reported that the helicopter was flying over the cherry orchard from south to north, and it had just completed a left turn when it collided with power lines that bordered the orchard. The helicopter impacted terrain, in a nose low attitude, about 45 feet south of the power lines. Power line wires were found wrapped 3 to 4 times around the main rotor mast and striation marks on the leading edge of the main rotor blades were indicative of a wire strike.
Examination of the accident site revealed that four wires were strung between poles with the top three wires about 50 feet agl and the lower wire about 40 feet agl. Postaccident examination of the airframe and engine revealed no evidence of a preimpact mechanical malfunction or failure that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from power lines while maneuvering at a low altitude.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR11FA350
- Event ID
- 20110725X05443
- Case number
- WPR11FA350
- 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: c4d540a52844d2f50d2847ae1afcff713e914899a6a66f78939d2c2abe0e6850; retrieved 2026-09-13T21:38:03.145Z.