ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 184702
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| Date: | Thursday 10 May 1990 |
| Time: | 18:00 |
| Type: |  McDonnell Douglas MD 500E (369E) |
| Owner/operator: | Rogers Helicopters Inc |
| Registration: | N5217N |
| MSN: | 0134E |
| Year of manufacture: | 1985 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 1854 hours |
| Engine model: | ALLISON 250 C20B |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Firebaugh, California -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | External load operation |
| Departure airport: | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The helicopter lost engine power and landed hard. The pilot reported he had just completed releasing an external load. It was about 125 feet agl in a climbing left turn when he heard a loud bang. The pilot entered auto-rotation. The pilot noted that the main rotor RPM was low and was unable to regain any main rotor RPM before the landing flair.
At touchdown, the main rotor blades flexed downward and severed the tail boom. The third stage compressor had failed, damaging the remaining stages of the compressor. The compressor case plastic was eroded. The engine had undergone major maintenance at 1,774.5 hours which required the removal of the turbine section. There was no evidence in the engine logbooks of the compressor section being inspected at 1,750 hours as required by the manufacturer. The engine maintenance manual warns erosion will cause damage to compressor blades and vanes.
The NTSB determined the cause to be: Failure by company maintenance to perform a mandatory compressor section inspection that resulted in the undetected erosion of the compressor vanes and engine failure. Contributing to the accident was the failure of the pilot to maintain adequate main rotor RPM at critical altitude
Sources:
1. NTSB Identification: LAX90LA171
2. FAA: http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?omni=Home-N-Number&nNumberTxt=5217N
3. http://www.ascendworldwide.com/download/Cust/WAAS167_Complete.pdf
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 28 May 2002 | VH-HJT | Private | 0 | Western Tiers, TAS |  |
w/o |
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 21-Feb-2016 20:00 | Dr.John Smith | Added |
| 21-Dec-2016 19:30 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Time, Damage, Category, Investigating agency] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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