NTSB CAROL · Event
Event SEA95IA082
Registry · N385PH
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
EUROCOPTER DEUTSCHLAND GMBH EC 135 P2+
Year of manufacture
2008
TCDS
H88EU · AIRBUS HELICOPTERS DEUTSCHLAND GMBH (AHD)
Engine
P&W CANADA PW206B2 (447 hp)
Seats / Engines
7 seats · 2 engines
Last airworthiness date
20080512
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A46F2A
Registrant of record
PHI HEALTH LLC
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
IMPROPER INSTALLATION OF THE RUDDER TRIM ACTUATOR ROD BY COMPANY MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL WHICH RESULTED IN BINDING AND FRACTURE OF THE ROD.
Factual narrative
On April 16, 1995, approximately 0805 Pacific daylight time (PDT), a Fairchild SA-227, N385PH, experienced a failure of a rudder trim rod while climbing out from Tri-Cities Airport, Pasco, Washington. There were no injuries to the two crew members and their five passengers, and the aircraft sustained only minor damage. The FAR Part 135 revenue flight, which was en route to Portland International Airport, Portland, Oregon, was in visual meteorological conditions at the time of the incident. The scheduled passenger flight was on an IFR flight plan, and there was no ELT activation involved in this incident. According to a representative of Horizon Airlines, the crew noticed an unusual airframe vibration after the departure from Pasco. They therefore elected to return to the Tri-Cities Airport, where they discovered that the rudder trim rod had failed. FAA inspectors determined that the actuator rod had been improperly installed by company maintenance personnel, and it had been binding before it fractured and failed. DURING CLIMB OUT, THE CREW NOTICED AN UNUSUAL AIRFRAME VIBRATION, AND RETURNED TO THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT. FAA INSPECTORS DETERMINED THAT THE RUDDER TRIM ACTUATOR ROD HAD BEEN IMPROPERLY INSTALLED, ALLOWING IT TO BIND AND EVENTUALLY FRACTURE. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1995_SEA95IA082.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall, 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.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2023 · Conference paper
The Value of Strong Partnerships to Build a Successful Aviation Maintenance Career Pathway Program for Transitioning Military Service Members
The aerospace industry is competing with other industries for a qualified workforce, and many of those competing industries are investing heavily in creating workforce development pipelines.
- 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…
- NASA NTRS 2026 · Conference Paper
Computational Analysis of Steady State Aerodynamics of Transonic Truss-Braced Wing Configuration in Deep Stall
This study presents a computational investigation of steady state aerodynamics of the Subsonic Ultra-Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR) Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) configuration over a wide range …
- 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.
- 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…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER)
A New Trajectory in UAV Safety: Leveraging Reinforcement Learning for Distance Maintenance Under Wind Variations
In the field of aviation, safety is a critical cornerstone, and the operation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems is deeply connected with this principle.
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