20250706020269A

This flight was conducted under part 91 with two family members on board. The aircraft departed from the south valley regional airport, ksvr with all four doors removed. The flight proceeded east up parleys canyon, turned south near the park city ski resorts, passed jordanelle dam, and continued west toward the brighton ski resort area. While cruising at approximately 9,000 feet MSL, they observed a large mountain meadow with a diverse spread of wildflowers. The passengers expressed interest in getting a closer look at the wildflowers in the meadow. The pilot conducted a high reconnaissance pass and performed a hover power check out-of-ground-effect (oge) into the wind at approximately 8,800 feet MSL , and following standard evaluation procedures before descending into the wide open meadow area and with the oge power check, the pilot determined that descending into the meadow with the intent to do a low pass over the meadow was operationally safe. The pilot then initiated a second, lower reconnaissance pass into the wind, remaining within safe operating parameters and maintaining awareness of terrain, wind, engine power and decent rate. The aircraft descended at a rate of about 250FPM, the pilot noticed the meadow had more of a pronounced bowl shape than originally anticipated and began to slow the helicopter with aft cyclic in order to reduce the rate of decent while simultaneously trying to keep as much altitude as possible due to rising terrain in front of the aircraft and then at approximately 40 feet AGL, a slight pull up on the collective was inputted in anticipation of descending into ground effect. The pilot maintained directional control and positive rate of descent and immediately noticed a significant drop in rotor RPM.

The pilot noticed the airspeed was between 10-12KTS and a rapid rotor RPM decay. He immediately executed emergency recovery procedures: lowering the collective, applying forward cyclic, and increasing the throttle. The rotor RPM did not recover in time to regain effective translational lift or perform a go-around, due to the proximity of the terrain and rising contours. The pilot then determined that a power recovery was no longer possible and initiated a straight-ahead autorotation into available area straight ahead. The aircraft touched down with minimal forward speed at the time of contact with the ground. The terrain at the touchdown point was uneven, and the left skid contacted an obstacle causing the front portion to shear off. The helicopter pitched forward resulting in a main rotor strike to the ground. The rotor system then flapped back causing it to contact the tail boom, bend it, and severing the tail rotor and horizontal/vertical stabilizers. The helicopter remained upright and stable. The pilot performed an immediate engine shutdown and shut off the fuel system.

After the helicopter was shutdown, the pilot and passengers assessed that no one was injured and started egress and self-recovery.