Rotorcraft Leasing Bell 407 incident
Bell 407 · Incident: powerplant system/component malfunction/failure during takeoff
From VK 989, GM to MP 301, GM
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN15IA046
- 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
- Incident
- 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
Bell 407
- Aircraft type
- Bell 407
- 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
- N373RL
- Operator
- Rotorcraft Leasing
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From VK 989, GMTo MP 301, GM
- Aircraft age
- About 15 years (built 1999)
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Powerplant system/component malfunction/failure
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, about 30 seconds after takeoff from an off-shore platform, about 400 ft mean sea level, the helicopter experienced a series of compressor stalls and engine surges. The pilot adjusted the collective pitch and began a slow descent. After the pilot decreased the engine power, the surges and stalls ceased. However, when the pilot began increasing power while attempting to return to the platform, the surges and stalls recurred. The pilot reported hearing the low rpm horn and observing that the power turbine gauge was near the redline. The pilot subsequently entered an autorotation, inflated the floats, flared the helicopter, and then landed it on the water.
The engine was test run with an exemplar engine control unit (ECU) and T1 sensor installed and found to be operational, and no surges were noted. Although the engine produced 2 percent less power than specified on its power assurance chart, it could not be determined whether this affected the engine during the flight. Although the engine's bleed air valve closed early during the test run, the valve would have been closed per specification during the incident sequence of events.
The ECU had been removed from the engine and was examined separately. An acceptance test procedure and a vibration test were conducted with no discrepancies noted. Although the ECU failed an initial pressure check, after the ambient pressure sensor was recalibrated, it passed the check. A review of the ECU's recorded data indicated that the engine experienced an engine surge condition during the flight. However, the data did not reveal any anomalies that would have caused the engine power surges.
Probable cause
Engine power surges during takeoff for reasons that could not be determined during postaccident testing of the engine and the engine control unit.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN15IA046
- Event ID
- 20141116X75006
- Case number
- CEN15IA046
- 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, damage. 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: fa0ef651ff121a22d3b3630589be647633c10f3c9e29eb18384189f6cd364503; retrieved 2026-09-16T01:55:43.094Z.