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DEN85FA067

1985-01-21 · CARSON, New Mexico, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

N40TE has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (BEECH F33A), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

THE HELICOPTER CRASHED IN OPEN TERRAIN DURING A TURN TO REVERSE DIRECTION. WITNESSES STATED THE ACFT WAS HEADING NORTH AND WAS ON A CONVERGING COURSE WITH HIGH TENSION LINES THAT WERE ABOUT 80 TO 100 FT HIGH AND THE BELLY COUNTED SPOTLIGHT WAS ILLUMINATED WHEN IT PASSED OVERHEAD. THE HELICOPTER IMPACTED SNOW COVERED TERRAIN IN A STEEP DESCENDING BANK TO THE RIGHT AT A HIGH RATE OF SPEED ON A SOUTHERLY HEADING. THE POWER LINES SHOWED NO EVIDENCE OF HAVING BEEN STRUCK. THE ACCIDENT SITE WAS 300 FT EAST OF THE POWER LINES. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1985_DEN85FA067.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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