GAA15CA204 · Airbus AS350-B2
US Department of Homeland Security Airbus AS350-B2 · Accident: low altitude operation/event while maneuvering
From Davis Monthan Air Force Base (DMA) to Ryan Field (RYN)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA15CA204
- 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
- Government
- 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
Airbus AS350-B2
- Aircraft type
- Airbus 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
- N6095U
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Davis Monthan Air Force Base (DMA), Tucson, AZTo Ryan Field (RYN), Tucson, AZ
- Aircraft age
- About 22 years (built 1993)
- 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
- Public Aircraft
- 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
- Low altitude operation/event
- 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 › Psychological
- 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
According to the Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident Report, the operator reported that, the flight instructor(CFI) was demonstrating the flare portion of an autorotation to the pilot-rated student when the aircraft continued through the power recovery point and impacted the runway. However, during the interview with the CFI and the student, both pilots referred to "flare portion" as the quick stop maneuver, which was the maneuver being performed at the time of the accident.
Both pilots stated that they hover taxied to the approach end of the runway, stopped over the runway numbers and established a hover between 65-75 feet above ground level. They reported that they hovered over the runway numbers, facing in the direction of the runway heading, and the CFI described the intricacies of the quick stop maneuver. The CFI specified that the maneuver would terminate to a hover, and initiated the quick stop demonstration by accelerating to the airspeed of 65 knots.
The CFI reported that as he talked through the maneuver, he lowered the collective and applied aft cyclic. He stated that as the helicopter began to settle, he misperceived the helicopters altitude in relation to the ground and the helicopter skids impacted the ground hard. Both pilots stated that the CFI responded by increasing collective and the helicopter ascended, started moving aft, and the tail boom separated impacting the left side of the fuselage. The student reported that he and the CFI were both on the controls after the first impact.
Both pilots recalled lowering the collective in order to set the helicopter down, the helicopter remained in a level pitch attitude, but yawed left and landed on the skids. The helicopter remained on the ground as the left yaw continued, and the engine was shut down. Both pilots reported that the helicopter spun on the skids, in two complete circles while on the ground, before coming to a stop.
The tail boom and main rotor system sustained substantial damage.
Both pilots reported that there were no pre-impact mechanical malfunctions or anomalies with any portion of the helicopter that would have prevented normal operations.
Probable cause
The flight instructor's misperception of the helicopter's altitude in relation to the runway surface during a low altitude maneuver, resulting in ground impact.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA15CA204
- Event ID
- 20150730X12436
- Case number
- GAA15CA204
- 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: e1ed56bf6ba606bbd580e94f2b0644e8d18f959fb4f31f961f89db32ec4983bf; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:36:07.152Z.