Skip to content

FTW83FRA03

1982-12-16 · HOUSTON, Texas, United States · Serious · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport 7

N801DB has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (SONEX AIRCRAFT ONEX, built 2020), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

THE PILOT STATED THAT AS HE CAME TO A HOVER TO LAND, AN ENGINE SURGE OCCURRED WHICH SENT THE HELICOPTER BACK INTO THE AIR. REPORTEDLY, THE ENGINE CONTINUED TO SURGE OFF AND ON, AND AS HELICOPTER CAME DOWN, IT WOULD IMPACT THE GROUND AND BOUNCE BACK IN THE AIR. THE PILOT STATED THAT AS THE FINAL SURGE OCCURRED, THE HELICOPTER SEEMED TO HIT, LEFT SKID LOW, AND ROLL OVER. THE OCCUPANTS EGRESSED AND THE ENGINE CONTINUED TO RUN. ABOUT 10 MIN LATER, THE HELICOPTER BEGAN BURNING AND WAS CONSUMED BY FIRE. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1982_FTW83FRA03.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.