ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 294981
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| Date: | Tuesday 18 November 2003 |
| Time: | 14:52 LT |
| Type: | Bell 47G-3B-2 Soloy |
| Owner/operator: | Farm And Forest Helicopter Service Inc |
| Registration: | N7825S |
| MSN: | 6688 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 11774 hours |
| Engine model: | Allison C-20-B |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Monmouth, Oregon -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Unknown |
| Nature: | Agricultural |
| Departure airport: | Monmouth, OR |
| Monmouth, OR | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The pilot was conducting long-line operations (utilizing a 50 foot long-line) in support of a Christmas tree harvest when the accident occurred. The pilot reported he was hovering, into the wind, over the "drop off point" when he heard a loud noise emanating from the rear of the helicopter. He described that the helicopter "instantly" began to rotate around its vertical axis and shortly after jettisoning the load the helicopter impacted terrain. During the post accident examination of the wreckage it was noted that the tail rotor blades and tail rotor gearbox were separated from the helicopters tail assembly. The tail rotor gearbox and one of the tail rotor blades was later located in a ditch near the accident site. The second tail rotor blade was located underneath a conifer tree approximately 100 feet east of the wreckage. Examination of the fractured tail rotor revealed that the blade fractured as a result of fatigue. The fatigue crack had multiple origins on the inside surface of the skin near the outboard end of the butt block (approximately 7.6 inches from the inboard end and 1.38-1.6 inches from the leading edge). Several of the origins were in pitted areas measuring no deeper than .00033 inches. Logbook records indicated that the tail rotor blade had accumulated approximately 1,723 hours since new. The life limit for the tail rotor blade is 2,500 hours
Probable Cause: Fatigue failure of a tail rotor blade during hover operations.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
NTSB SEA04LA018
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 12-Oct-2022 16:33 | ASN Update Bot | Added |
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