- Date
- April 27, 1984, 07:15 local (12:15 UTC)
- Place
- Hartshorn, OK
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N3835WAerospatiale AS 315B
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19840427060509A
- Case key
- 21320
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The helicopter sustained substantial damage during an autorotative landing following an explosion in the engine compartment. While in level flight at 1000 ft AGL, the plt heard a loud screech from the engine area followed by a loud bang. A wingman observed 10 ft flames from the engine exhaust. A hard autorotative landing resulted when the plt attempted to stretch the glide to a more suitable landing area. The plt then extinguished the fire using an onboard extinguisher. Metallurgical exam of the axial compressor section traced the compressor blade failure to an improper retaining pin which caused a stress concentration in the compressor blade root. It was determined that the pin was installed during the original manufacturing process.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N3835W
- Reported as
- Aerospatiale AS 315B
- Category
- Helicopter
- Serial number
- 2544
- Airframe hours
- 1,111
- Engine
- Turbomeca ARTOUSTEIII-B, 562 horsepower, turbo shaft
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Fire
- In-Flight
- Flight
- Positioning · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Hosking Helicopter Inc.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Departed
- MLC · Mcalester, OK
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 34
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Unknown, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Right
- Flight hours
- 6,920 total · 2,515 in this make and model · 6,735 as pilot in command · 220 in the last 90 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 230° at 4 knots
- Visibility
- 6 statute miles
- Temperature
- 61 °F, dew point 54 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- MLC, 5 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.