- Date
- August 19, 1988, 07:10 local (11:10 UTC)
- Place
- Riviera Beach, FL
- Injuries
- 1 serious, 1 minor
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N3766ZHughes 500
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report November 7, 1989
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19880819034249A
- Case key
- 32037
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 traffic watch helicopter was cruising northbound along the interstate at 450 ft AGL & 85 KTS airspeed. A grinding noise was heard & the tail rotor separated from the acft. The acft began an uncommanded right turn which was arrested in about 1/4 turn. The plt attempted to autorotate into an open field just east of the hwy, but struck a 25 ft tree at the edge & crashed. An exam revealed the tail rotor gear box housing, p/n 369A5400-607, had failed. A portion of the housing, driven gear, tail rotor blades & related components separated from the acft in flt. The missing parts sank in a lake about 1/2 mi from the crash site & were not recovered. The remaining section of the box was examined by NTSB lab & failure was due to overload with no evidence of fatigue or corrosion. A witness saw 2 objects fall from the helicopter. One object was white and looked like a bird, probably a seagull. The other object looked like a stick or a 2X4 piece of wood.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N3766Z
- Reported as
- Hughes 500
- Category
- Helicopter
- Serial number
- 440588S
- Airframe hours
- 4,635
- Engine
- Allison 250-C20, 420 horsepower, turbo shaft
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Aerial observation · Part 91
- Operator
- Trafficopters, Inc.
- Registered owner
- Trafficopters, Inc
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · August 1, 1988 · 40 hours before
- Departed
- PBI · West Palm Beach, FL
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
- 40
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 6,350 total · 1,082 in this make and model · 6,280 as pilot in command · 58 in the last 90 days · 27 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 120° at 6 knots
- Visibility
- 7 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 81 °F, dew point 73 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- PBI, 6 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.
Other investigations on N3766Z · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.