- Date
- April 12, 1994, 13:00 local (20:00 UTC)
- Place
- Troutdale, OR
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Maneuvering
- Aircraft
- N2865BBell 47G-2
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report December 2, 1994
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19940412000729A
- Case key
- 41908
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
The instructor pilot's inadequate remedial action. Factors include the dual student's lack of experience, and his failure to maintain directional control. Another factor was unfavorable, gusty winds.
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
While hovering in a variable, gusty wind, the student pilot failed to maintain directional control of the helicopter. The instructor pilot took control of the aircraft, but his remedial action was not adequate to prevent the tail rotor from striking the ground.
Factual narrative
On April 12, 1994, approximately 1300 Pacific daylight time (PDT), a Bell 47G-2 helicopter, N2865B, collided with the terrain while hovering at Portland-Troutdale Airport, Troutdale, Oregon. The certified flight instructor and his student were not injured, but the aircraft sustained substantial damage. The local instructional flight, which departed the same airport about 15 minutes earlier, was in visual meteorological conditions at the time of the accident. No flight plan had been filed, and there was no report of an ELT activation.
According to the FAA inspector who responded to the scene, the dual student, who had a total time of 3.5 hours, was practicing a hover about three to five feet above the ground when the helicopter began a deviation from the desired flight attitude. The instructor took over from the student, but the tail rotor impacted the ground before the instructor was able to complete his desired remedial action.
After a post-accident inspection of the aircraft, this same inspector said that he could find no evidence of pre-impact malfunctions or anomalies.
The Troutdale Surface Analysis (SA), taken about five minutes prior to the accident, showed that there were rain showers of unknown intensity in all quadrants, and the flight instructor reported that the winds, which he said were gusting to 10 knots, were coming from an "unusual" direction. The instructor said that Troutdale Airport was "...notorious for having very unusual wind directions, speed, turbulence, and wind shear."
Aircraft
- Registration
- N2865B
- Reported as
- Bell 47G-2
- Category
- Helicopter
- Serial number
- 1982
- Airframe hours
- 6,676
- Engine
- Lycoming VO-435, 260 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Conquest Helicopters Inc.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · April 5, 1994 · 14 hours before
- Airport
- TTD · Portland-Troutdale
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 32
- Certificates
- Flight instructor, Commercial
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Right
- Flight hours
- 1,033 total · 338 in this make and model · 1,013 as pilot in command · 94 in the last 90 days · 30 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 300° at 5 knots, gusting 10
- Visibility
- 15 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 4,000 ft broken
- Temperature
- 55 °F, dew point 41 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.