ERA16LA330 · Tatkovsky James G SAFARI 400
Tatkovsky James G SAFARI 400 · Accident: abrupt maneuver during initial climb
From Andover, NH to Andover, NH
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA16LA330
- 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
- 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
Tatkovsky James G SAFARI 400
- Aircraft type
- Tatkovsky James SAFARI
- 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
- N330JT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Andover, NHTo Andover, NH
- Aircraft age
- About 12 years (built 2004)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Abrupt maneuver
- 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
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The noncertificated pilot was flying the helicopter on a local, personal flight. He reported that, during takeoff and while flying between 25 and 30 mph, the helicopter began an uncommanded climb that he could not control with forward cyclic control input. He added that the helicopter then "came to a complete stop." The helicopter yawed right, its nose dropped, and then the tailboom swung left and descended into trees. The airplane came to rest on its side at the base of a tree. The pilot reported no issues with the cyclic or collective flight controls from the cockpit to the main rotor.
Postaccident examination of the helicopter revealed extensive fire damage; however, there was no evidence of any preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions that would have precluded normal operation. The failure of a flight control system spring or cable could cause unexpected movement of the collective, but the helicopter's collective system was equipped with two springs and two cables for redundancy. None of these components had failed. Although the springs exhibited evidence of relaxing, it was likely due to the postcrash fire.
Probable cause
The noncertificated pilot’s failure to maintain helicopter control during initial climb.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA16LA330
- Event ID
- 20160928X92308
- Case number
- ERA16LA330
- 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: c2ec48bc5b34da2c1447fe3678b93d0e2dda458b747980968f3da8aa2fefbb2e; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:19:47.205Z.