WPR13LA215 · Arrow Falcon Exporters Inc OH-58A+
Morris Ag Air Arrow Falcon Exporters Inc OH-58A+ · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From KNLY · Yuma, AZ to Somerton Airport (54AZ)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR13LA215
- 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
Arrow Falcon Exporters Inc OH-58A+
- Aircraft type
- Arrow Falcon Exporters OH-58
- 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
- N911RN
- Operator
- Morris Ag Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Narrative disagrees
- From KNLY · Yuma, AZTo Somerton Airport (54AZ), Somerton, AZ
- 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 as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, at the time of the accident, he had been awake for about 14 hours. The accident flight occurred about midnight as he was completing his 15th agricultural application to a field in dark night conditions with no moon and a cloud layer. Forward-projecting flood lights had been mounted on the helicopter to illuminate the terrain directly in front of it. The pilot stated that, while in a left turn to align with a narrow field that had a row of power lines running along one side, he applied left cyclic until it hit the stop. The helicopter continued to drift toward the power lines, so he increased the collective and left pedal to maneuver over them. Although the helicopter cleared the power lines, it started to rotate to the right in an uncommanded fashion and subsequently collided with terrain. The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failure with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot had accumulated 40 hours of night-time flying experience, and this was his first season being employed as a pilot for agricultural application operations. However, due to his working at a time when he normally would be asleep and a relatively long time since awakening, the pilot was most likely fatigued at the time of the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control while maneuvering at a low altitude in dark night conditions, which resulted in collision with terrain. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's fatigue due to his working at a time when he normally would be asleep and a relatively long time since awakening and the pilot's lack of total experience in the task environment.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR13LA215
- Event ID
- 20130504X22444
- Case number
- WPR13LA215
- 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: 5031fcbba8842b00def03807421d7c5bae624e738cbe2cdf95a6d5aa86a30115; retrieved 2026-09-15T21:24:41.310Z.