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Atlas / NTSB / ERA24LA172

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ERA24LA172

2024-04-09 Ceiba, Puerto Rico, United States Airport · RVR None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N5841Z

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

MD HELICOPTERS INC 369FF

Year of manufacture

1999 · 25 years old at event

TCDS

H3WE · MD HELICOPTERS INC (MDHI)

Engine

ALLISON 250 SER 400HP (400 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 2 engines

Last airworthiness date

19990610

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A78757

Registrant of record

PUERTO RICO ELECTRIC POWER AUTHORITY

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilots’ failure to ensure adequate clearance from the taxiway while performing a quick stop maneuver.

Factual narrative

The accident pilot was new to the company, and he and the chief pilot were practicing quick stop maneuvers in the helicopter. The pilots reported that while performing a quick stop maneuver over a taxiway, they heard a noise before the nose of the helicopter began turning right and the skids touched down. Postaccident examination of the helicopter by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed that its horizontal stabilizer was substantially damaged. Photographs of the horizontal stabilizer and tail rotor displayed signatures consistent with both contacting the ground during the quick stop maneuver. The pilots reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures of the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).

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

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2024_ERA24LA172.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (icing). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗