WPR22LA034 · Bell OH-58A
Edgefield Aviation Bell OH-58A · Accident during takeoff
From Sandy, OR to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR22LA034
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Bell OH-58A
- Aircraft type
- Bell OH-58
- 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
- N103WC
- Operator
- Edgefield Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sandy, ORTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 52 years (built 1969)
- 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 133: Rotorcraft Ext. Load
- 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
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
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 pilot was lifting off with an external load of Christmas trees. As the helicopter climbed above 60 ft above the ground (agl), the pilot reported that he simultaneously heard a change in sound from the engine and felt the helicopter yaw, but could not remember which direction the helicopter yawed. After he released the external load, the helicopter lost altitude and he heard the main rotor speed decay. He initiated an autorotation and raised the collective while maintaining heading in the landing flare. The skids contacted the water-soaked soil and the helicopter rocked nose-low, bounced, and came to rest upright. Subsequently, the main rotor blade struck the tailboom and separated the tail rotor and tail rotor gearbox assembly. Postaccident examination of the engine revealed no evidence of any preimpact mechanical malfunction or failure that would have precluded normal operation. The engine functioned normally during two separate tests and the intermittent operation of the fuel boost pump annunciator light could not be replicated. According to the helicopter manufacturer, under the given conditions, at a gross weight of 2,350 pounds and a height of 50 feet, a hover out of ground effect can be accomplished. The reason for the loss of engine power was undetermined.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR22LA034
- Event ID
- 20211115104243
- Case number
- WPR22LA034
- 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, cause areas. 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: fb778f69bcb9c3abc538d5707a0ece9d0741c6bf8ac9ccfdd9c1201cb5597e4c; retrieved 2026-09-16T14:44:33.064Z.