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CEN14CA098

2014-01-02 · Temple, Texas, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport TPL

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's loss of control while landing on a mobile helipad.

Factual narrative

On January 2, 2014, about 1700 central standard time, a Bell 206B helicopter, N400XL, experienced a roll over while repositioning from the ramp to a mobile helipad. The pilot was not injured. The helicopter was registered to and operated by Engemann Aviation Services, LLC under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the flight, which originated from Draughon-Miller Central Texas Regional Airport (KTPL) in Temple, Texas. The pilot reported he was relocating the helicopter from the parking ramp to a mobile helipad approximately 30 feet away. As the pilot lowered the helicopter onto the mobile helipad, the left rear skid slipped off the pad. The helicopter rolled over and impacted the ground on its right side. The rollover resulted in substantial damage to the main rotor head, including separation of the rotor blades, and separation of the tail boom. On January 2, 2014, about 1700 central standard time, a Bell 206B helicopter, N400XL, experienced a roll over while repositioning from the ramp to a mobile helipad. The pilot was not injured. The helicopter was registered to and operated by Engemann Aviation Services, LLC under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the flight, which originated from Draughon-Miller Central Texas Regional Airport (KTPL) in Temple, Texas. The pilot reported he was relocating the helicopter from the parking ramp to a mobile helipad approximately 30 feet away. As the pilot lowered the helicopter onto the mobile helipad, the left rear skid slipped off the pad. The helicopter rolled over and impacted the ground on its right side. The rollover resulted in substantial damage to the main rotor head, including separation of the rotor blades, and separation of the tail boom. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-(general)-Not attained/maintained - C
  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2014_CEN14CA098.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (loss of control). All research papers