CEN18LA365 · MD Helicopters MD-369 E
MD Helicopters MD-369 E · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing
From Mc Phail Heliport (7MI1) to Mc Phail Heliport (7MI1)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN18LA365
- 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
MD Helicopters MD-369 E
- Aircraft type
- MD Helicopters MD-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
- N1601Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mc Phail Heliport (7MI1), Orchard Lake, MITo Mc Phail Heliport (7MI1), Orchard Lake, MI
- Aircraft age
- About 31 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 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
- 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter departed from a wheeled helicopter transportation dolly at the pilot's private heliport and came to an in-ground-effect hover. The pilot indicated that as he was maneuvering the helicopter to the right of the dolly at a hover, a flock of Canada geese "came flying in to the front and right" of the helicopter. The pilot reported "quickly moving" the helicopter back to the right to avoid the birds; that was the last action he could remember until after the impact. The helicopter came to rest on its left side with the main rotor blades separated from the main rotor hub and the tail rotor gearbox separated from the tailboom.
The pilot reported there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation.
The pilot's private heliport was near a lake where Canada geese are known to congregate. It is likely that, while in a hover and attempting to avoid the birds by performing an evasive maneuver, the pilot failed to maintain helicopter control and terrain clearance.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain helicopter control and terrain clearance while in a hover after performing an evasive maneuver to avoid wildlife.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN18LA365
- Event ID
- 20180903X22731
- Case number
- CEN18LA365
- 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: 4af552c4fb87e30d1d2cfbfe23449b0101383220b2d236332096c78c04acd8e4; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:11:47.034Z.