ERA12WA086 · Bell 212
Aeromaster Airways Bell 212 · Accident: low altitude operation/event during initial climb
From Quito to Quito
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA12WA086
- 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
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- 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
Bell 212
- Aircraft type
- Bell 212
- 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
- HC-CLH
- Operator
- Aeromaster Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From QuitoTo Quito
- 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
- Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Low altitude operation/event
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Quito, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
On November 25, 2011, about 1640 coordinated universal time (1140 local time), a Bell 212, Ecuadorian registration HC-CLH, operated by Aeromaster Airways, S.A., was substantially damaged when it impacted steep terrain next to the company's helipad in Quito, Ecuador. The two Ecuadorian pilots and two on board mechanics were seriously injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the local post-maintenance check flight conducted under Ecuadorian flight regulations.
Preliminary information from Ecuadorian authorities indicated that the helicopter had first conducted a series of hover checks before initiating a takeoff over a ravine. According to the pilot, during the takeoff, the helicopter lost rotor rpm, and he attempted a return to the helipad. However, the helicopter impacted the side of the helipad and descended 36 meters to the bottom of the ravine, where it came to rest on its left side in a creek.
The investigation is under the jurisdiction of the government of Ecuador. Further information can be obtained from:
Dirección General de Aviación Civil Junta Investigadora de Accidentes de la República del Ecuador Avenida Colón E5-56 y La Rábida Edificio Ave María Torre Sur Quito, República del Ecuador Tel: 593-02-223-8981 www.dgac.gov.ec
This report is for informational purposes, and only contains information released by the government of Ecuador.
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA12WA086
- Event ID
- 20111128X55504
- Case number
- ERA12WA086
- 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.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a0feab38f85aade1a36f3dffe1b4fb93b5bc186c3e330e8e5b7b7b049164f1da; retrieved 2026-09-15T16:57:57.736Z.