GAA19CA252 · Aerospatiale AS350 B
Trans North Turbo Air Aerospatiale AS350 B · Accident while maneuvering
From Coldfoot Airport (CXF) to Coldfoot Airport (CXF)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA19CA252
- 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
Aerospatiale AS350 B
- Aircraft type
- Aerospatiale 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
- C-GTNV
- Operator
- Trans North Turbo Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Coldfoot Airport (CXF), Coldfoot, AKTo Coldfoot Airport (CXF), Coldfoot, AK
- Aircraft age
- About 37 years (built 1982)
- 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 · 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The chief pilot reported that the helicopter pilot told him that, while attempting to net a calf during a caribou capture flight, he got within shooting range for the net gun, but the calf suddenly "broke right." He then turned the helicopter to follow the calf, and while turning, the pilot thought the shot would not be possible and that he should set up for another run, but the gunner fired. The pilot heard a "bang," followed by a strong vibration. The pilot landed the helicopter without further incident.
The pilot reported that postaccident examination revealed that one of the main rotor blades had sustained substantial damage, which he assumed was from a net weight.
The chief pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The gunner’s improper net gun firing, which resulted in a net weight impacting the rotor blades.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA19CA252
- Event ID
- 20190507X52101
- Case number
- GAA19CA252
- 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: d339f5802a470ab90bb74b16a03b6ad1a46cb3ad118deb01d896a7fcb1040ef5; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:57:11.179Z.