NTSB CAROL · Event
Event GAA18CA066
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot’s failure to land the helicopter with both skids on the trailer platform, which resulted in a loss of control.
Factual narrative
The helicopter pilot reported that, while positioning the helicopter on a trailer for maintenance, the helicopter landed on the trailer with the left skid off the platform and the tail rotor struck the ground. The pilot added that the helicopter climbed about 50 ft. and he reduced power. During the descent, the main rotor blade struck the tail boom and the helicopter impacted the pavement. The helicopter sustained substantial damage to the fuselage, tail boom, and main rotor blades. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation. The helicopter pilot reported that, while positioning the helicopter on a trailer for maintenance, the helicopter landed on the trailer with the left skid off the platform, and the tail rotor struck the ground. The pilot added that the helicopter climbed about 50 ft, and he reduced power. During the descent, the main rotor blade struck the tailboom, and the helicopter impacted the pavement. The helicopter sustained substantial damage to the fuselage, tailboom, and main rotor blades. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with 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).
- C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C
- C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-(general)-Not attained/maintained - C
- — Environmental issues-Physical environment-Runway/land/takeoff/taxi surface-(general)-Effect on operation
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2017_GAA18CA066.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Beyond the agency record
Search this event elsewhere.
Pre-filled searches into the sources where news + community discussion of aviation events lives. External sources are reported, not agency. Treat them as signal that something happened, not as fact about what happened.
Entity-clustered aviation events in the press — last 24 hr + 30-day archive.
Official agency record + docket.
Investigative docket: factual reports, photos, transcripts.
Long-running aviation incident database (Flight Safety Foundation).
Community NTSB synthesis blog — often has photos and witness reports.
Gold-standard aviation incident blog.
Aviation industry news search.
GA pilot forum — informed but rumor-prone.
GA pilot subreddit search.
Tail-number page — flight history (free tier limited).
AOPA Air Safety Institute search.
Mainstream press coverage. Recent events only.
Privacy-preserving news search.
External links open in a new tab. We don't ingest their content; we deep-link search queries.
Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (loss of control, maintenance). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2002 · Accident report
Loss of Control and Impact with Pacific Ocean — Alaska 261
Alaska Airlines Flight 261 (MD-83) Pacific Ocean, January 31, 2000 — 88 fatalities. Definitive investigation of the Alaska 261 pitch-runaway-and-loss-of-control crash.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2026 · Journal article (IJAAA)
From Reactive to Predictive: A hybrid Trust-Mediated Adoption Framework for Data-Driven Maintenance in Distributed-Authority Aviation Environments
Modern aviation maintenance operates within increasingly data-intensive technological environments, yet the operational integration of predictive maintenance into routine decision-making remains incon…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2025 · Journal article (JAAER)
A Scoping Review of Aviation Loss of Control Inflight Research
Loss of control – inflight (LOC-I) contributes to aircraft accidents at unacceptably high rates. Significant industry efforts and research have aimed to improve LOC-I prevention, detection, and recove…
- Semantic Scholar 2025 · Article (Applied Sciences)
Decision-Making Framework for Aviation Safety in Predictive Maintenance Strategies
The implementation of predictive maintenance (PM) in aviation presents unique challenges due to strict safety requirements, complex operational environments, and regulatory constraints.
- SKYbrary (Eurocontrol) 2024 · SKYbrary article
Loss of Control In-Flight (LOC-I) — SKYbrary Knowledge Base
SKYbrary comprehensive knowledge-base entry on Loss of Control In-Flight — definitions, contributing factors, accident case studies (Air France 447, Colgan 3407), and prevention strategies.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER)
Low-Resource Automatic Speech Recognition Domain Adaptation – A Case-Study in Aviation Maintenance
With timeliness and efficiency being critical in the aviation maintenance industry, the need has been growing for smart technological solutions that optimize and streamline the different underlying ta…
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗