Air Methods Eurocopter EC135 T2 PLUS accident
Eurocopter EC135 T2 PLUS · Accident: low altitude operation/event while maneuvering
From King County International Airport - Boeing Field (KBFI) to Easton, WA
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR25LA290
- 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
- Ongoing
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 EC135 T2 PLUS
- Aircraft type
- Eurocopter EC135
- 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
- N955AL
- Operator
- Air Methods
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From King County International Airport - Boeing Field (KBFI), Tukwila, WATo Easton, WA
- Aircraft age
- About 18 years (built 2007)
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Low altitude operation/event
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On September 23, 2025, at 2303 Pacific daylight time, a Eurocopter EC-135 T2+, N955AL, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Whittier, Washington. The pilot and three medical crew members received minor injuries. The helicopter was operated by Air Methods, LLC as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 135 air medical flight.
The pilot stated that while en route back to the helicopter’s base, he received a request to transport a medical patient. The pilot received the scene coordinates and proceeded to the location. Upon arrival, he determined the coordinates were incorrect by a few miles. After circling, he established communication with the landing zone (LZ) commander on the ground and was able to locate the scene. The LZ was located at an interstate highway exit adjacent to the highway, and the surface consisted of gravel and dirt. During his initial approach, he opted to perform a go-around maneuver and then establish an approach from another direction.
The pilot further stated that he communicated with the onboard crew throughout the approach about their view and obstructions. The helicopter passed surrounding treetops and light poles and continued to the LZ. As the helicopter descended, the crewmember positioned in the left-front seat communicated that she observed dust accumulating in the air, which the pilot acknowledged. The helicopter continued to descend and, as it neared terrain, the crew’s visibility was reduced by dust/dirt, which the pilot described as “brown out.”
According to the pilot, he maintained visual reference to a light on a vehicle parked at the scene, but decided not to abort the landing due to the rising terrain and nearby obstacles surrounding the LZ. As he attempted to maintain the helicopter in a hover about two feet above the ground, the helicopter impacted a mound of gravel and rolled onto its right side. (See Figure 1).
The pilot reported no pre impact mechanical failures or malfunctions that would have precluded normal operation.
Figure 1: Accident location (photo courtesy of Federal Aviation Administration)
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR25LA290
- Event ID
- 20250924201708
- Case number
- WPR25LA290
- 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. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2025-09-24.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2029c1d3b963ee806e584de8648943ddcbaeb533a7c6afe0bb6fdcc6b70a078b; retrieved 2026-09-16T20:22:51.146Z.