WPR14FA195 · American Eurocopter Corp AS350B3 B2
Papillon Airways American Eurocopter Corp AS350B3 B2 · Accident: loss of control on ground while standing
From Grand Canyon West Airport (1G4) to Grand Canyon West Airport (1G4)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR14FA195
- 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
- 1 · 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
American Eurocopter Corp AS350B3 B2
- Aircraft type
- Eurocopter AS350
- 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
- N840PA
- Operator
- Papillon Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Grand Canyon West Airport (1G4), Peach Springs, AZTo Grand Canyon West Airport (1G4), Peach Springs, AZ
- Aircraft age
- About 1 year (built 2013)
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) operating
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial pilot was repositioning the helicopter and advised ground personnel that he intended to land and perform a "fluid check." Company personnel reported that most pilots used this term when they intended to land away from the awaiting passengers and exit the helicopter to relieve themselves. The pilots would generally leave the engine running when outside the helicopter.
The helicopter was equipped with an on board video recording system. The recording revealed that the pilot landed the helicopter in a location that had a direct buffeting crosswind. The pilot tightened the friction on the cyclic, which then did not move. The twist grip light illuminated, and engine audio was consistent with the throttle being moved toward ground idle. About 6 seconds later, the twist grip light extinguished, engine audio was consistent with an increase in power to flight idle; engine data parameters indicate that the twist grip was moved to flight idle. On the video, the collective position continued to increase. About 15 seconds later, the pilot exited the helicopter. External audio indicated a sound similar to N1 increasing.
For the next 24 seconds, the video showed an increase in airframe buffeting. The helicopter then began to pitch nose down. One second later, the helicopter began to roll right; the roll increased, and the helicopter then began to yaw left. The sound of the door opening was heard, likely indicating that the pilot attempted to enter the helicopter. The helicopter continued to roll and yaw until noises consistent with the rotor blades impacting the ground were heard.
The operator had a policy that required a pilot to always be at the controls of a running helicopter. However, according to pilot interviews, this policy was not generally followed, and the pilots would not shut down the helicopter when they needed to relieve themselves. However, pilots who were interviewed stated that they would leave the helicopter operating at ground idle. It could not be determined why the pilot would leave the helicopter while it was operating at flight idle without the flight controls properly secured.
Probable cause
The pilot’s decision to exit the helicopter while it was running and his failure to properly secure the flight controls with the engine operating at flight idle before exiting the helicopter.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR14FA195
- Event ID
- 20140518X03315
- Case number
- WPR14FA195
- 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, coordinates. 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: e8bfae784bdb273d1b43f3d2330378ccff61602ea9515dd8dfb2580c44159a27; retrieved 2026-09-14T17:17:57.984Z.