ERA14FA010 · Eurocopter AS 350 B3
Memphis Medical Center Eurocopter AS 350 B3 · Accident: VFR encounter with IMC while maneuvering
From Hospital Wing Heliport (2TN0) to Whitehurst Field (60TN)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA14FA010
- 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
- 3 · 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
- Unknown
Eurocopter AS 350 B3
- Aircraft type
- Eurocopter AS-350
- 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
- N353HW
- Operator
- Memphis Medical Center Dba
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hospital Wing Heliport (2TN0), Memphis, TNTo Whitehurst Field (60TN), Bolivar, TN
- Aircraft age
- About 12 years (built 2001)
- 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
- 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
- VFR encounter with IMC
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight was dispatched to pick up a patient at a hospital and transport him to another hospital near the helicopter's home base. The pilot performed a weather check, and the flight departed with two medical staff on board. Night, visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the departure helipad. Satellite tracking data revealed that the helicopter proceeded in an easterly direction, following a US highway. The helicopter then climbed in right-hand turn until the satellite data ended; the helicopter was about 1,116 feet above ground level (agl). The wreckage was found, burning, in a wooded area, about 3,300 feet south of the US highway. No eyewitnesses to the accident were located. The helicopter impacted the trees at a steep angle, and the orientation of the main wreckage was indicative of a loss of helicopter control before impact. The wreckage was largely consumed by a postcrash fire.
Examination of the airframe, rotor system, and engine did not reveal evidence of a preexisting mechanical malfunction of failure. Rotational signatures on the main rotor and engine indicated that the engine was producing power at the time of the accident.
The helicopter was equipped with night vision goggles (NVG) and NVG-capable lighting. The pilot had been trained on the use of NVG about 12 months before the accident. The helicopter was not equipped for flight under instrument flight rules.
A review of the weather conditions revealed that, at an airport within 2 miles of the accident site, few clouds were observed at 800 feet agl, and a broken ceiling existed at 1,200 feet agl. A review of the helicopter's ground track revealed two obstacles in the immediate vicinity, an unlit, nonoperational cellular tower, 140-feet tall, and a water tower, about 115-feet tall. The helicopter was equipped with a Helicopter Terrain Avoidance Warning System (HTAWS). Although recorded HTAWS data was not available, research and flight testing revealed that the pilot may have received an in-flight obstacle alert, prompting a climb. Considering the low clouds and night conditions that probably existed along the last segment of the flight's track, it is likely that the pilot initiated a climb and inadvertently entered instrument meteorological conditions, where a loss of helicopter control occurred.
Probable cause
The pilot’s inadvertent encounter with night, instrument meteorological conditions while responding to an obstacle alert, resulting in an in-flight loss of helicopter control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA14FA010
- Event ID
- 20131022X92949
- Case number
- ERA14FA010
- 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: 609287d4949e9961c5fc39a1a59f2df3dcaf8746df8b2b1acf702d6a269b0bb2; retrieved 2026-09-14T16:05:45.106Z.