- Date
- February 19, 1985, 01:30 local (07:30 UTC)
- Place
- Houma, LA
- Injuries
- 1 minor
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Approach
- Aircraft
- N31223Sikorsky S-76A
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19850219003639A
- Case key
- 21673
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 aircrew had just completed a medivac flt & were repositioning the helicopter to the home base. While they were en route, the company dispatcher informed the crew that fog was moving into the area & that they had better hurry. During the night apch, the helicopter impacted the ground in a level attitude, about 300 west of the threshold to rwy 18. The crew stated that the last thing they remember was being at 250 ft AGL while attempting a VFR apch. One plt was monitoring the instruments while the other was attempting to obtain the rwy environment. The acft was equipped & the plts were qualified to make an instrument apch.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N31223
- Reported as
- Sikorsky S-76A
- Category
- Helicopter
- Serial number
- 760257
- Airframe hours
- 1,554
- Engine
- Allison 250-C30, 650 horsepower, turbo shaft
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Positioning · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Pumpkin Air
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- AAIP · January 1, 1985 · 54 hours before
- Departed
- Abbeville, LA
- Flight plan
- Company VFR
- Airport
- HLM · Houma-Terrebonne
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
- 46
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Helicopter, Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Right
- Flight hours
- 15,000 total · 300 in this make and model · 150 in the last 90 days · 6 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Wind
- Calm
- Temperature
- -0 °F, dew point -0 °F
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.