CEN23LA295 · Bell UH-1H
Kash Helicopter Services Bell UH-1H · Accident while maneuvering
From Mount Vernon Outland Airport (MVN) to Woodlawn, IL
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN23LA295
- 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 UH-1H
- Aircraft type
- Bell UH-1
- 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
- N900VF
- Operator
- Kash Helicopter Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mount Vernon Outland Airport (MVN), Mount Vernon, ILTo Woodlawn, IL
- Aircraft age
- About 55 years (built 1968)
- 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft structures
- 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 pilot reported that the helicopter exhibited a “sudden bounce/shake that became extremely violent.” He immediately began a descent for landing in a corn field. About 50 feet above ground level, the helicopter began an uncommanded 180° turn and landed upright in the field. The tail boom separated and was located in the corn field near the fuselage. The fuselage and main rotor blades were damaged, and the main rotor transmission was dislocated from the mounts, consistent with the forced landing. The operator reported that there was no mechanical malfunction or failure associated with the helicopter, and that the engine was still running after impact. However, because the operator did not make the helicopter available for a postaccident examination, the reason for the violent bouncing/shaking and subsequent tail boom separation could not be determined.
Probable cause
The separation of the tail boom from the fuselage for reasons that could not be determined.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN23LA295
- Event ID
- 20230711192602
- Case number
- CEN23LA295
- 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: 609ad8ceafbb3cde39cb87b992f12cae9ef749f2214230345608c8eb1e4f0f68; retrieved 2026-09-16T17:50:42.586Z.