GAA18CA012 · Eurocopter Deutschland Gmbh MBB BK 117 C-2
Osf Aviation Eurocopter Deutschland Gmbh MBB BK 117 C-2 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport (PIA) to Ingersoll Airport (CTK)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA18CA012
- 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
Eurocopter Deutschland Gmbh MBB BK 117 C-2
- Aircraft type
- Eurocopter MBB BK 117
- 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
- N140SF
- Operator
- Osf Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport (PIA), Peoria, ILTo Ingersoll Airport (CTK), Canton, IL
- Aircraft age
- About 7 years (built 2010)
- 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
- Maneuvering · hover
- 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 › 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
The helicopter flight instructor reported that he was training a new company pilot at night, and they were using night vision goggles. He added that, while in a hover, he attempted to demonstrate the use of the controllable search light to the pilot in the right seat.
The flight instructor added that, "to adjust the light, I took the [left] cyclic in my left hand which would normally be holding the left collective and attempted to reach the control switch for the light and grabbed the throttles of the right collective with my right hand. My right hand would normally be on the left cyclic." He further added that he then inadvertently pushed down on the collective, and the helicopter began to settle on the runway. He reported that in response "[his] reflex was to pull up with [his] left hand (which would normally be on the collective)," and when he did so the helicopter moved rearward. Subsequently, he "pushed the cyclic forward to correct" the rearward movement, but in doing so, the helicopter touched down hard, and the main rotor impacted the upper wire strike protection unit.
The main rotor sustained substantial damage.
The flight instructor reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The flight instructor's incorrect cyclic control during a hover, which resulted in a hard landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA18CA012
- Event ID
- 20171016X23330
- Case number
- GAA18CA012
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2017-10-13.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ff3ee7c6ec149b280fefc4c0fe1b714cb82262b2bf95d129a3f35db97fbc6c85; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:56:22.305Z.