ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 169448
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| Date: | 21-JUL-2007 |
| Time: | 17:40 |
| Type: |  Hughes 369D |
| Owner/operator: | US Department of the Interior |
| Registration: | N69PF |
| MSN: | 1060012D |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Omak, WA -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.) |
| Nature: | Fire fighting |
| Departure airport: | Omak, WA (KOMK) |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
At the time of the accident, the pilot was descending into a hover over a pond that he was using for an aerial fire bucket refill site. As he began to level off in the hover, he heard a loud noise and felt an "accelerated vibration." Almost immediately thereafter, the helicopter began to spin to the right, so the pilot closed the throttle and made an autorotational landing in about three to four feet of water. A post-accident inspection of the helicopter revealed that the tail rotor driveshaft had failed in torsional overload, and that one of the tail rotor blades had experienced delaminating as a result of contact with the water over which the helicopter was hovering.
Probable Cause: The pilot's failure to maintain clearance from the surface of a pond that he was using as a water bucket refill site, which resulted in a tail rotor strike to the water's surface and a torsional overload failure of the tail rotor drive shaft.
Sources:
NTSB: https://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief.aspx?ev_id=20070808X01149&key=1
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 02-Sep-2014 09:41 | Aerossurance | Added |
| 21-Dec-2016 19:28 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Time, Damage, Category, Investigating agency] |
| 04-Dec-2017 18:47 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Operator, Other fatalities, Nature, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
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