- Date
- March 4, 1992, 19:15 local (Mar 5, 1992, 02:15 UTC)
- Place
- Ft. Grant, AZ
- Injuries
- 2 fatal, 1 serious
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N350AHAerospatiale AS-350D
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Status
- Completed · report July 26, 1993
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19920304005089A
- Case key
- 27409
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
1) The pilot inadequately evaluating the enroute weather conditions, and, 2) the pilot making the inflight decision to continue VFR flight into adverse weather conditions. Factors in this accident were the inability of the pilot to see the mountainous terrain due to the ambient light conditions, clouds, and snow.
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
After receiving the request for a medical evacuation mission, the crew checked weather with an FAA fss to determine if the mission would be accepted. Ground clutter on the weather radar prevented a complete weather brief for enroute mountainous areas. The pilot got weather for his departure point. The pilot told fss '...I think I can meander my way through the mountains on that one.' The pilot accepted the mission. After takeoff the pilot was told by FAA departure control there was 'weather' on his route of flight 'but the intensity is unknown.' Radar service was terminated and the crew continued. The surviving crewmember stated that as the flight progressed, everything got 'black.' He said he could not see outside the aircraft. He said about 5 minutes before the crash, the pilot told the crew '...we are going inadvertent.' Meaning, they were going into the clouds and he would be flying by instruments. The survivor said he heard the 'altitude buzzer,' followed by the impact.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N350AH
- Reported as
- Aerospatiale AS-350D
- Category
- Helicopter
- Serial number
- 1478
- Airframe hours
- 2,183
- Engine
- Lycoming LTS 101-600A3, 615 horsepower, turbo shaft
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Other work use · Part 91
- Operator
- Southwest Helicopters
- Registered owner
- Don Redman
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · February 7, 1992 · 34 hours before
- Departed
- 38E · Tucson, AZ
- Destination
- NONE · Safford, AZ
- Flight plan
- Company VFR
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
- 32
- Certificate
- Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Right
- Toxicology
- Performed
- Flight hours
- 5,750 total · 250 in this make and model · 5,700 as pilot in command
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.