CEN11FA507 · Sikorsky UH-34D
Southern Helicopter Service Sikorsky UH-34D · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Wilton, IA to Wilton, IA
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN11FA507
- 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 UH-34D
- Aircraft type
- Sikorsky UH-34
- 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
- N3880J
- Operator
- Southern Helicopter Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wilton, IATo Wilton, IA
- 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 control in flight
- 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 › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot flew the helicopter toward an agricultural field that was to be sprayed with fungicide. As the helicopter flew along the edge of the field, the pilot brought the helicopter into an out-of-ground-effect hover and performed a left pedal turn. The helicopter descended and impacted terrain. The helicopter was operated with a fuel grade that reduced the maximum engine power and the available climb rate for the conditions at the time of the accident. According to the Rotorcraft Flying Handbook, Basic Flight Maneuvers, Hovering Turn, it states in part, "…It should be noted that during a turn to the left, more power will need to be added because left pedal pressure increases the pitch angle of the tail rotor, which, in turn, requires additional power from the engine..." It is likely that the helicopter did not have sufficient power to perform the hovering turn successfully. A postaccident examination did not reveal any mechanical anomalies that would have precluded the helicopter's operation.
Probable cause
The inadequate performance planning by the pilot that resulted in reduced climb capability while transitioning to an out-of-ground effect hover with a left pedal turn.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN11FA507
- Event ID
- 20110726X03343
- Case number
- CEN11FA507
- 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: d475ed6638db69b326eac52b4b216506a9c8f6e8be5cc8dc1ebe8b6e6e1d8a5d; retrieved 2026-09-13T21:38:41.536Z.