CEN12TA004 · Eurocopter EC120B
Department of Homeland Security Eurocopter EC120B · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From McAllen Miller International Airport (MFE) to McAllen Miller International Airport (MFE)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN12TA004
- 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
Eurocopter EC120B
- Aircraft type
- Eurocopter EC120
- 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
- N3925A
- Operator
- Department of Homeland Security
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From McAllen Miller International Airport (MFE), McAllen, TXTo McAllen Miller International Airport (MFE), McAllen, TX
- 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
- Landing
- 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 on ground
- 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 › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot and the supplemental crewmember were dispatched to provide aerial support for an on-going border patrol mission. The mission was delayed, so the pilot decided to make a no-hover landing to an unfamiliar grass field and sit idle (to conserve fuel) until needed. On approach, the pilot had too much forward speed for the no-hover landing and transitioned to a slow, running landing. Upon touchdown, the pilot said he used full aft cyclic to control the maneuver but did not remember what he did with the collective. The helicopter slid about 34 feet then pitched forward causing the helicopter's lower wire strike protection system and the main rotor blades to strike the ground. According to the operator's aircraft standardization manual, during a running landing, the pilot has to hold the collective stationary after ground contact to avoid any rapid pitch reductions. The pilot reported that there were no mechanical problems prior to the accident. He said the accident could have been avoided if he had conducted an approach to hover followed by a vertical landing or executed a go-around and re-attempted a no-hover landing.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper use of the collective while landing, which resulted in an unrecoverable forward pitching moment. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's improper decision not to go-around.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN12TA004
- Event ID
- 20111005X91033
- Case number
- CEN12TA004
- 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: 5cf394115a6eb92db017eb2a14e8e784b5bea4d15d317eb36accbf6990b8f10d; retrieved 2026-09-15T16:48:42.937Z.