ERA13GA046 · Hughes OH-6A
Atlanta Police Department Hughes OH-6A · Accident: low altitude operation/event while maneuvering
From Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) to Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA13GA046
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Government
- 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
Hughes OH-6A
- Aircraft type
- Hughes OH-6
- 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
- N368PD
- Operator
- Atlanta Police Department
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Atlanta, GATo Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Atlanta, GA
- 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
- Public Aircraft
- 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
- Low altitude operation/event
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The night, public flight was being operated to support ground-based police personnel in locating a missing child. Witnesses reported observing the helicopter at a very low altitude with the search light on maneuvering near the intersection of two city streets. Witness statements indicated that, as the helicopter neared the intersection, the landing gear skids collided with wires at the top a 42-foot power pole. The helicopter then flipped over and crashed into the street. Recorded radar data were consistent with the witness statements. An examination of the airframe did not reveal evidence of malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. Rotational scoring found on the internal engine components indicates that the engine had power at impact. No distress calls were received from the flight crew before the crash. Most of the pilot's peers described him as "meticulous," "capable," and "competent"; however, one pilot stated that the accident pilot had a tendency to "fly low."
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain sufficient altitude during maneuvering flight, which resulted in his failure to see and avoid a power pole and wires.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA13GA046
- Event ID
- 20121104X05051
- Case number
- ERA13GA046
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2012-11-04.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ee7037fad82df74b1d79c53533cf921fb3b820a488bfb034439ce8f5670a1b6d; retrieved 2026-09-14T15:47:23.978Z.