Reeder Flying Service Aerospatiale AS350B2 BA accident
Aerospatiale AS350B2 BA · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Joslin Field Magic Valley Regional Airport (TWF) to Rexburg Madison County Airport (RXE)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR14LA272
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
Aerospatiale AS350B2 BA
- Aircraft type
- Aerospatiale 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
- N350CR
- Operator
- Reeder Flying Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Joslin Field Magic Valley Regional Airport (TWF), Twin Falls, IDTo Rexburg Madison County Airport (RXE), Rexburg, ID
- Aircraft age
- About 24 years (built 1990)
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 › Physical
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 reported that the purpose of the flight was to position the helicopter and its installed camera equipment to the staging area of an intended aerial videography project. He added that the prestart, run-up, and hover checks were uneventful. While proceeding to the staging area, he climbed the helicopter to between about 800 and 1,000 ft above ground level. Shortly thereafter, the pilot lost consciousness, and his next recollection was waking up in an intensive care unit. After the pilot lost consciousness, the front seat passenger attempted to control the helicopter using the cyclic; however, the helicopter eventually collided with terrain.
According to medical records regarding the pilot's postaccident hospital treatment, the pilot suffered a sudden, temporary loss of consciousness (known as a syncopal episode) while he was operating the helicopter. Postaccident medical evaluation led to a diagnosis of sick sinus syndrome, a heart condition, which likely caused the pilot's loss of consciousness and his subsequent inability to maintain helicopter control.
Probable cause
The pilot’s sudden incapacitation from a previously undiagnosed medical condition while in cruise flight, which resulted in his inability to maintain helicopter control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR14LA272
- Event ID
- 20140629X13627
- Case number
- WPR14LA272
- 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: 0ee03f4d5ceb6eba694c615a24ba3fef84f53939e363bc7fe8ee2bc498fd3139; retrieved 2026-09-16T00:30:05.804Z.