ERA24FA075

The pilot and passenger were returning to their home airport after dropping off a family member at another airport. The passenger stated that the helicopter yawed to the right and began to spin out of control immediately before the accident. The helicopter descended and impacted into a canal, where it was located in about 20 ft of water. Postaccident examination of the wreckage revealed evidence of main rotor contact with the tail boom, resulting the separation of a portion of the tail boom in flight. Separation of the tail boom, and the resultant loss of tail rotor thrust, would lead to a sudden right yaw, consistent with the passenger’s description. There was no evidence of a malfunction of the main rotor system, flight control system, or a loss of engine power that could have resulted in the main rotor’s contact with the tail boom. Because the helicopter was not equipped with, nor was required to be equipped with, a flight data recorder or a cockpit image recorder, the pilot’s flight control inputs leading up to the main rotor’s contact with the tail boom is unknown.

On December 27, 2023, at 1259 eastern standard time, a Hughes 369E helicopter, N757TB, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Miami, Florida. The pilot was fatally injured, and the passenger sustained minor injuries. The helicopter was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. According to the passenger, who was the pilot’s daughter, the purpose of the flight was to drop off her brother at Page Field Airport (FMY), Fort Myers, Florida. They departed Miami Executive Airport (TMB), Miami, Florida, about 1030. They arrived at FMY with no issues and were on the ground about 30 minutes before departing to return to TMB. She further stated that the flight home was normal, and she did not notice anything; however, when the helicopter was about 5 miles west of TMB, it yawed to the right and the began spinning out of control. The helicopter impacted the water and her door opened. She exited the helicopter and swam to shore. The helicopter was located at the bottom of a canal, at a water depth of about 20 ft. Damage to the bottom of the helicopter was consistent with its impacting the water in a near-vertical descent. The tail boom was fractured forward of the vertical stabilizer and was located about 450 ft from the main wreckage. Flight control continuity was observed to all primary flight controls through the fractured tail boom. The engine remained securely attached to the respective mount struts on the engine gearbox. The aft strut on the left side mount had fractured at the rod end connection with the strut tube. Rotation of the engine power turbine, in the driving direction, resulted in rotation of the engine-to-transmission driveshaft and the main rotor head. Additionally, functionality of the overrunning clutch, both in the drive and freewheeling directions of rotation, was confirmed. A borescope was used to examine the combustion liner, nozzle shield, and first-stage gas producer turbine nozzle and blades. All the associated components appeared visually unremarkable. The main rotor and main transmission remained installed on the helicopter. All main rotor head components remained installed with no evidence of separation or fractures. The main rotor blades were cut near their root ends to facilitate recovery of the wreckage. The main rotor blades did not exhibit fragmentation, and all were full length. The main rotor blades exhibited chordwise deformation, with two blades exhibiting significant chordwise and downward deformation near their root ends. At the trailing edge of one blade, the upper and lower skins had splayed open at the tip end The aft portion of the tail boom containing the tail rotor and T-tail stabilizer (empennage) was fractured and separated about 57 inches aft of the tail boom-to-main fuselage attachment and about 25 inches forward of the tail rotor gearbox attachment. The tail rotor gearbox remained installed on the aft end of the tail boom, the latter of which wasfractured and separated from the main wreckage. The tail rotor blades remained installed on the tail rotor hub and did not exhibit anomalous damage other than damage due to submersion in the canal. Rotation of the tail rotor resulted in a corresponding rotation of the tail rotor drive shaft that remained within the [separated] empennage. The tail rotor drive shaft was fractured at the location of the tail boom fracture. Rotation of the tail rotor drive shaft resulted in a corresponding rotation of the main rotor, confirming continuity of tail rotor drive from the main transmission, with no evidence of binding.