- Date
- August 23, 1989, 12:09 local (16:09 UTC)
- Place
- Ponce, PR
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Approach
- Aircraft
- N955BBell 47G
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report September 5, 1991
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19890823036149A
- Case key
- 32486
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 the aft tail rotor drive shaft.
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 student plt was on an apch to land on a x-country flt, when the aft tail rotor drive shaft (pn: 47-644-187) failed at about 40' AGL. He rprtd the helicopter began to spin to the right, so he closed the throttle & the spinning stopped. He pulled up on the collective to cushion the landing, but ran out of collective pitch at about 10' above the ground. Subsequently, the helicopter touched down hard, damaging the tail rotor & tail boom. The tail rotor drive shaft had failed just forward of the 90 deg gear box.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N955B
- Reported as
- Bell 47G
- Category
- Helicopter
- Serial number
- 711
- Airframe hours
- 5,837
- Engine
- Franklin 6V-350, 235 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Esteves, Arturo
- Registered owner
- Esteves Arturo
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · August 10, 1989 · 15 hours before
- Departed
- BQN · Borinquen, PR
- Destination
- PSE
- Flight plan
- VFR
- Airport
- PSE · Mercedita, runway 12, 5,529 × 100 ft, concrete
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
- 48
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 116 total · 77 in this make and model · 55 as pilot in command · 22 in the last 90 days · 7 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 130° at 20 knots
- Visibility
- 15 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 91 °F, dew point 73 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- PSE
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 N955B · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.