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WPR24LA036

2023-11-15 · Estacada, Oregon, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

N103WC has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (KAMPS CLARENCE M BUSHBY MUSTANG II), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s failure to maintain helicopter control during an external load operation, which resulted in the helicopter’s main rotor blades impacting the tail boom.

Factual narrative

The pilot reported that he was relocating bundles of trees from the harvest field onto a truck bed. Approximately 30 minutes into the operation, the load hook did not immediately release when he was setting a bundle down. The pilot pressed the release button multiple times, as he had done in similar situations in the past. The helicopter’s momentum, as it moved back towards the field, caused the bundle to slide a few feet. One of the main rotor blades then struck the tail boom, and the other blade flapped down, cutting off the rear section of the tail boom, vertical stabilizer, and tail rotor. The helicopter spun several times before landing, resting flat on the skids. The landing impact was forceful enough to break the mast and dislodge the main transmission. The helicopter sustained substantial damage to the main rotor, tail boom, vertical stabilizer, tail rotor, and transmission. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operations. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

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

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2023_WPR24LA036.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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