- Date
- November 4, 1984, 21:45 local (Nov 5, 1984, 05:45 UTC)
- Place
- Santa Ana, CA
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- No damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N5840TWestland Helicopters WG30
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19841104070609I
- Case key
- 24556
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the incident.
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
During a climb to cruise, the crew experienced control difficulties when the for-&-aft trim actuator began to motor forward and would not stop. An emerg descent was made with both plts exerting aft cyclic pressure to prevent the speed from increasing over 120 KTS. The acft returned successfully to the departure arpt. All gages indicated normal and no warning lights were observed. An investigation revealed a fatigue failure of the fb 10 electrical relay and subsequent fouling of the contact operation by a broken fragment. The relay spring failed from fatigue, initiated as micro cracks which resulted from cold forming bending and subsequent straightening process during manufacture.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N5840T
- Reported as
- Westland Helicopters WG30
- Category
- Helicopter
- Serial number
- 006
- Airframe hours
- 16,927
- Engine
- Rolls-Royce GEM 510, 1,050 horsepower, turbo shaft
- Damage
- No damage
- Flight
- Positioning · Part 91
- Operator
- Evergreen Helicopters Of Ak, doing business as Merrill Field
- Registered owner
- Airspur Helicopters, Inc.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Transport
- Last inspection
- Continuous airworthiness · November 1, 1984 · 118 hours before
- Departed
- SNA · Santa Ana, CA
- Destination
- LAX · Los Angeles, CA
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- SNA · John Wayne, runway 19, 2,887 × 0 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
- 36
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Helicopter
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Right
- Flight hours
- 4,400 total · 475 in this make and model
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Wind
- Calm
- Visibility
- 2 statute miles
- Temperature
- 64 °F, dew point 57 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- SNA, 3 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.