WPR11LA356 · Sikorsky S-55B
Sikorsky S-55B · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Brewster, WA to Brewster, WA
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR11LA356
- 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
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
- N855TC
- Operator
- Golden Wings
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Brewster, WATo Brewster, 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 · hover
- 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 as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter pilot was conducting a low-level flight over orchards for the purpose of drying cherry trees. The orchard was bordered by a series of power lines, and a gusting, variable wind was present at the time of the flight. During a low hovering pass over the orchard, a gust of wind pushed the helicopter toward power lines. In an attempt to avoid the power lines, the pilot increased collective pitch, and the helicopter began to climb. During the climb, the main rotor rpm decayed and the nose of the helicopter yawed to the right. The pilot lowered the collective and increased the engine power in an effort to regain main rotor rpm; however, the helicopter descended into the orchard. The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operations, and that the accident could have been prevented if the flight had been conducted after the wind diminished.
Probable cause
The pilot did not maintain main rotor rpm while hovering in gusting wind conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR11LA356
- Event ID
- 20110802X61652
- Case number
- WPR11LA356
- 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: 3e5cb51326d4c7e45a99be39bebcce2fb9489f328cce579212f53bf145df0c19; retrieved 2026-09-15T16:32:48.275Z.