ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 174797
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| Date: | Thursday 12 February 2004 |
| Time: | 11:55 |
| Type: |  Hughes 369F |
| Owner/operator: | MD Helicopters, Inc. |
| Registration: | N630N |
| MSN: | 0004F |
| Year of manufacture: | 1984 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Mesa, AZ -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | Mesa, AZ (FFZ) |
| Mesa, AZ (FFZ) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The helicopter's main rotor blades struck the tail boom following a hard landing. The pilot was demonstrating full-touchdown, practice autorotations for a potential customer. Before touching down, about 2 feet above ground level, the helicopter encountered a gust of wind and the nose turned 45 degrees to the left. The pilot applied right pedal pressure to counteract the sudden drift, but was unable to get the helicopter back on centerline. During touchdown, the helicopter landed hard and skidded about 4 feet until it came to rest without incident. A few seconds later, the pilot heard a loud noise. The main rotor blades had collided with the tail boom. The pilot did not report any mechanical problems with the helicopter prior to the accident.
Probable Cause: the pilot's inadequate compensation for the wind gusts and subsequent failure to maintain directional control of the helicopter, which resulted in a hard landing. A contributing factor was a wind gust.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
NTSB: https://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief.aspx?ev_id=20040306X00284&key=1
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 4 November 1996 | N630N | McDonnell Douglas | 0 | Flagstaff, AZ | |
sub |
| 21 November 1996 | N630N | McDonnell Douglas | 0 | Flagstaff, AZ | |
sub |
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 23-Mar-2015 20:34 | Noro | Added |
| 21-Dec-2016 19:30 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Time, Damage, Category, Investigating agency] |
| 07-Dec-2017 17:42 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Operator, Other fatalities, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
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