ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 291781
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| Date: | Saturday 23 September 2006 |
| Time: | 15:30 LT |
| Type: |  Aerospatiale SA 319B Alouette III |
| Owner/operator: | Last Frontier Air Ventures Ltd. |
| Registration: | N119PH |
| MSN: | 2119 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1974 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 4914 hours |
| Engine model: | Turbomeca Astazou 14 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Port Alsworth, Alaska -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Unknown |
| Nature: | Cargo |
| Departure airport: | Port Alsworth, AK (PALJ) |
| Port Alsworth, AK | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
During a Title 14, CFR Part 133 flight, the commercial certificated pilot was transporting a previously crashed airplane on a 100 foot external load line. The external load line was attached to a spreader bar that was attached to the wing structure of the airplane. While flying about 60 knots, and about 2,000 feet above ground level (agl), the pilot felt the load shift, becoming light, or unloaded, and he began to slow the helicopter's airspeed. The helicopter then suddenly pitched nose-down about 45 degrees. The tail boom of the helicopter was struck by one or more main rotor blades, severing the tail rotor drive shaft. The pilot released the external load from the belly of the helicopter and entered an autorotation. About 1,000 feet agl, the pilot shut the engine off, and performed a touch down autorotation. During the landing on soft tundra, one of the main landing gear wheels dug into the terrain, and the helicopter's tail boom was struck by the main rotor blades, severing about two feet of the aft end of the tail boom. The pilot did not determine the cause of the external load shift.
Probable Cause: The pilot's failure to adequately secure the external load rigging of an airplane that was suspended from the helicopter, which resulted in a load shift during cruise flight, producing an abrupt nose-down attitude, and the severing of the tailrotor drive shaft by the main rotor blades.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
NTSB ANC06LA137
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 7 April 2003 | N119PH | Performance Helicopters LLC. | 0 | VALDEZ, Alaska | |
sub |
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 07-Oct-2022 18:50 | ASN Update Bot | Added |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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