- Date
- September 13, 2009, 14:30 local (19:30 UTC)
- Place
- Cedar Park, TX
- Injuries
- 1 minor
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Approach
- Aircraft
- N555BBYates W/Lazar M Safari Helicopter
- Defining event
- Approach-VFR pattern final: Part(s) separation from AC
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report March 3, 2010
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Central Region
- Parties
- FAA San Antonio FSDO
- FAA report
- 20090913017729A
- Case key
- 74729
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
An in-flight separation of the tail rotor blades and the tail rotor gearbox for undetermined reasons.
Findings · 3
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
The helicopter was approximately 400 feet above the ground on a normal straight-in landing to a paved runway. At an airspeed of 45 miles per hour the pilot heard a snap and the helicopter began to spin. The pilot entered an autorotation and said he was concentrating on just “trying to keep the helicopter as flat as possible”. The helicopter struck the trees in a nose-down attitude. There was no fuel spill and no postcrash fire. The helicopter was substantially damaged and the pilot, who was the only occupant, sustained minor injuries. The Texas State Trooper who responded said that the tail rotor gearbox was missing from the area of the main wreckage. By the next day residents in the area had found a single tail rotor blade and, several hundred feet away, they found the other tail rotor blade still attached to the tail rotor hub and tail rotor gearbox. Photographs of the separated tail rotor blade show that the skin had ripped away from all three blade grip bolt holes. A postcrash examination of the helicopter failed to reveal why the tail rotor blades and gearbox separated from the aircraft.
Factual narrative
The helicopter was at approximately 400 feet above the ground on a normal straight-in landing to a paved runway. At an airspeed of 45 miles per hour the pilot heard a snap and the helicopter began to spin. The pilot entered an autorotation and said he was concentrating on just “trying to keep the helicopter as flat as possible”. The helicopter struck the trees in a nose down attitude. There was no fuel spill and no post crash fire. The helicopter was substantially damaged and the pilot, who was the only occupant, sustained minor injuries. The Texas State Trooper that responded to the accident scene said the tail rotor gear box was missing from the area of the main wreckage. By the next day residents in the area had found a single tail rotor blade and several hundred feet away they found the other tail rotor blade still attached to the tail rotor hub and tail rotor gearbox. Photographs of the separated tail rotor blade show that the skin had ripped away from all three blade grip bolt holes. A post-crash examination of the helicopter failed to reveal why the tail rotor blades and gearbox separated from the aircraft.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N555BB
- Reported as
- Yates W/Lazar M Safari Helicopter
- Category
- Helicopter, amateur-built
- Serial number
- BB2077
- Airframe hours
- 135
- Engine
- Lycoming O-320-B2B, 160 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Experimental (Special)
- Last inspection
- Annual · January 18, 2009
- Departed
- 40XS · Cedar Park, TX
- Destination
- 40XS · Cedar Park, TX
- Airport
- 40XS · Breakaway Park Airport, runway 15, 2,900 × 50 ft, asphalt
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 51
- Injuries
- Minor
- Certificate
- Private
- Medical
- Class 3, With waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- December 1, 2007
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 254 total · 155 in this make and model · 225 as pilot in command · 15 in the last 90 days · 4 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 310° at 5 knots
- Visibility
- 7 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 3,000 ft broken
- Temperature
- 79 °F, dew point 68 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.79 inHg
- Observed at
- KRYW, 9 nm away
Docket · 1
The files NTSB released with the investigation on November 3, 2009, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 309 KB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.