Volcano Helicopters McDonnell Douglas Helicopter 369E E accident
McDonnell Douglas Helicopter 369E E · Accident during initial climb
From Hilo International Airport (ITO) to Hilo International Airport (ITO)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR17LA005
- 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
McDonnell Douglas Helicopter 369E E
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas 369
- 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
- N311VT
- Operator
- Volcano Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hilo International Airport (ITO), Hilo, HITo Hilo International Airport (ITO), Hilo, HI
- Aircraft age
- About 29 years (built 1987)
- 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
- 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
- Unknown or undetermined
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
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, after completing an external cargo lift operation, he landed at a remote location to jettison the lift cable and to board the two ground workers for a ferry flight back to their home base. Shortly after liftoff, the pilot felt a moderate aberration in the cyclic flight control, followed by a significant vertical vibration. The pilot subsequently observed that the main rotor (MR) blade track had a substantial blade spread. Subsequently, the pilot conducted a forced emergency landing to a nearby suitable area.
A postaccident examination of the helicopter revealed that one MR blade was missing about 9 inches of its blade tip, consistent with impact with an object of substantial mass, possibly a cable; the damage was not consistent with separation of the blade end due to a preexisting condition. Two other MR blades exhibited scuff marks and scratches along their leading edges with areas that had defined parallel scratches, consistent with cable impact.
The pilot reported that he released the lift cable before the flight, and it was not recovered. The pilot added that, after he released the cable, the ground crew placed the coiled cable in the rear compartment that had no doors. Examination of the lift cable release mechanism revealed no damage to the component, and additional testing revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation of the lift cable mechanism.
There is no evidence that the lift cable remained attached to the hook during the accident flight; therefore, it was likely in the passenger compartment at liftoff as reported by the pilot. Therefore, based on the damage to the MR blades, it is likely that the cable exited the helicopter during liftoff and subsequently impacted the MR, which resulted in the separation of an MR blade tip and the vertical vibration of the helicopter.
Probable cause
Impact of the lift cable after it exited the helicopter during liftoff with the main rotor (MR) blades, which resulted in the separation of an MR blade tip and the vertical vibration of the helicopter.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR17LA005
- Event ID
- 20161012X62544
- Case number
- WPR17LA005
- 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: 241aa061ae337f5a0a7ffcfb2319a2fbaadf6927280465922c36d8fbdcbc50c4; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:23:31.692Z.