- Date
- July 21, 1989, 12:40 local (17:40 UTC)
- Place
- Greenwood, MS
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N47345Texas Helicopter OH-13E/M74
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report September 5, 1991
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19890721024619A
- Case key
- 32467
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
Failure of a main rotor blade pitch change horn and/or attaching bolt(s).
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 cruise flt, the helicopter went out of control & began an uncommanded descent. The cyclic & collective controls were non-responsive, but left pedal was applied before the helicopter crashed & it crashed in a tail low attitude. An exam of the flt controls revealed that one main rotor blade pitch change horn had failed, as well as the attaching boltsfor both pitch change horns. There was evidence that one of the bolts had failed, then the other failures were from overload.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N47345
- Reported as
- Texas Helicopter OH-13E/M74
- Category
- Helicopter
- Serial number
- 76-002
- Airframe hours
- 2,696
- Engine
- Lycoming VO-435-AIF, 260 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Positioning · Part 91
- Operator
- Valley Air, Inc.
- Registered owner
- Turner, Danny
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Restricted (Special)
- Last inspection
- Annual · June 21, 1989 · 46 hours before
- Departed
- M42 · Grenada, MS
- Destination
- 522 · Iha Bena, MS
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
- 42
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane, Helicopter
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Front
- Flight hours
- 11,219 total · 2,263 in this make and model · 10,833 as pilot in command · 130 in the last 90 days · 50 in the last 30 days · 7 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 200° at 5 knots
- Visibility
- 5 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 1,500 ft overcast
- Temperature
- 77 °F, dew point 66 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- GWO, 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.
Other investigations on N47345 · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.