Preliminary Reports
Pilot Killed in Off-airport Night Departure, Bell 407, Oct. 8, 2023, Croydon, New Hampshire
The solo pilot was killed when the helicopter crashed just 30 seconds after taking off from the field where he had made a precautionary landing two days earlier. The accident occurred at 19:32 local time, an hour and a quarter after sunset and 46 minutes after the end of civil evening twilight. The moon had set, and while skies were clear and the stars were visible, a witness beneath the flight path described the night as “dark.”
The pilot had broken off a powerline patrol on October 6 due to low weather, landing in a privately owned field company pilots used when conditions prevented return to base.
He returned to the field in the evening of October 8 to position the helicopter for a photo flight planned for the next morning at Rhode Island’s Quonset State Airport, 115 miles south. Data recovered from the ship’s image recording system showed that it lifted off at 19:31:30, climbed vertically to 500 feet, and initially followed a northeasterly track while continuing to climb. It reached a maximum altitude of 700 feet before turning east and then southeast, accelerating as it descended.
Company personnel launched a search after signals to their tracking system ended, and around 02:00 the wreckage was located about 600 feet from the last recorded position fix.
The pilot held numerous fixed-wing and rotorcraft ratings, including instructor certificates for helicopters and single- and multiengine airplanes and instrument ratings for both airplanes and helicopters. His 13,780 flight hours included 11,326 in turbine-powered helicopters. Of his 1,377 hours in the Bell 407, 220 had been logged in the preceding 12 months.
Passenger Succumbs after Engine Failure, Piper PA-46-350P JetProp conversion, Oct. 23, 2023, Pierre, South Dakota
The pilot suffered serious injuries and the only passenger’s injuries proved fatal in a forced landing following a total loss of engine power during climb-out. The airplane had just departed the Pierre (South Dakota) Regional Airport for Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Climbing through 11,000 feet for its assigned altitude of FL220, the engine “abruptly stopped; rolled back” without any warnings or abnormal indications.
The pilot declared an emergency and made a 180-degree turn back toward the airport, feathering the propeller after unsuccessfully trying to restart the engine. Electrical power was lost during the descent. Realizing that he was unable to reach the airport, the pilot made a gear-up landing on rolling, grassy terrain and performed CPR on the passenger until first responders arrived.
No Injuries in Houston Runway Collision, Cessna Citation Mustang CE-510 and Hawker 850XP, Oct. 24, 2023, Houston, Texas
The vertical stabilizer of a Citation Mustang landing on Runway 13R of Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport was clipped by the left wing of a Hawker 850XP that initiated its takeoff roll on Runway 22 without clearance, causing substantial damage to both aircraft but no injuries. The Cessna had arrived on a Part 91 flight from Atlanta’s Fulton County Executive Airport, while the Hawker was beginning a Part 135 flight to the Waukesha County (Wisconsin) Airport.
About one minute after the Hawker requested taxi clearance from ground control, the Cessna checked in with tower reporting a nine-mile final for Runway 13R and was cleared to land. The Hawker was handed off to tower as it approached Runway 22 and was instructed to line up and wait. The crew read back the clearance but immediately began their takeoff roll, not respondiing to two instructions from tower to “stop, hold your position.” Both the Hawker’s pilots subsequently told investigators that they believed they’d been cleared to take off and were subsequently distracted by rudder bias and pitch trim alerts during the takeoff roll.
They also reported not seeing the Cessna until about one second before experiencing a “thud.” They continued the takeoff but during the initial climb requested return to the airport and were given vectors to land on Runway 13R. Damage was confined to the Cessna’s tail and the Hawker’s left wing.
Final Reports
Fatal Long-line Crash Tied to Undetected Manufacturing Defect, Hughes 369D, April 6, 2022,, Port McNeill, British Columbia, Canada
Failure of the sixth-stage compressor wheel caused a total loss of engine power just after the pilot released the load at low altitude with little or no forward airspeed, precluding a successful autorotation. Though the helicopter came to rest more or less upright, impact forces killed the 13,000-hour pilot, whose extensive experience in the area included more than 6,000 hours in similar external-load operations.
Metallurgic analysis found that the compressor wheel had fractured in two places, the first due to fatigue cracks initiating from shrinkage voids that occurred during initial manufacture and progressed to overstress failure and the second entirely from overstress. Shrinkage voids are “casting defects caused when there is an insufficient volume of metal in the mold” and cannot be detected by either visual inspection or X-ray. While CT scans can detect them, these are not part of either manufacturing quality control or routine overhaul procedures.
The failed compressor wheel was manufactured in 2001 and had been operated for 6,646.6 hours at the time of the accident. It was not subject to any service-life limits. In 2007, the manufacturer changed production from cast wheels to parts fully machined from heat-treated bar stock.
Fuel Exhaustion Brought Down Jump Airplane, Cessna 208B Grand Caravan,, April 30, 2022, Parmiers Les Pujols Aerodrome, Occitanie, France
Total fuel exhaustion on the day’s fifth skydiving flight caused the loss of engine power that led the Grand Caravan to touch down short of Runway 27, coming to rest in a ditch. Errors in the pilot’s configuration of the airplane for an engine-out glide also contributed to its failure to reach the runway.
Before the fourth flight, the pilot added 100 liters (26.4 gallons) of fuel. During start-up for the fifth, planned for 4,000 meters (13,100 feet), the low fuel indicators for both wing tanks illuminated. Believing he had 85 liters in the right tank and 29 liters in the left, the pilot continued the takeoff with 18 skydivers and one non-jumping passenger on board.
At 3,800 meters the red low fuel indicator for the feeder tank illuminated. He asked the skydivers to jump as quickly as possible and they exited in about one minute. The pilot swung north to avoid the drop zone before re-entering right traffic for Runway 27, extending landing flaps without feathering the propeller. Coming in low on final, he retracted the flaps and the Caravan “instantly sank.” Engine-out procedures in its flight manual specify feathering the propeller and using full flaps below 80 knots airspeed.
Parking Brake Implicated in Another CE-560 Mishap, Cessna Citation CE-560XLS+, May 23, 2022,, Schwäbisch Hall, Badden-Württemberg, Germany
While attempting to depart on a positioning flight, the crew noticed that the twin--engine corporate jet accelerated much more slowly than usual. The right main tire blew and the airplane veered off the right side of the runway; the cockpit voice recorder captured one of the pilots saying “Die Bremse ist anezogen!” (“The brake is engaged!”) Neither pilot was injured in the excursion from the runway.
As noted in several recent U.S. accident investigations, the CE-560XL’s parking brake is engaged by a pull knob not visible from the right seat when both pilot seats are occupied. It is not cited in the before-takeoff checklist, and its engagement does not trigger any cockpit annunciation or input to the Takeoff Configuration Warning Alert system.
Floatplane Stalled in Fog, De Havilland Canada DHC-3 Turbine Otter, Oct. 12, 2022, Pluto Lake, Quebec, Canada
An unexpected fog layer over the lake led the pilot to slow the airplane while circling, resulting in a low-altitude stall into the water. The pilot was seriously injured but escaped the airplane before it sank, was rescued by boat after swimming to shore, and subsequently evacuated by search-and-rescue (SAR) crews.
The charter flight departed Quebec’s Mistissini Water Aerodrome at 8:04 local time to deliver cargo and pick up three passengers. Based on available forecasts and observations, the pilot anticipated clear skies, with any morning fog having burned off by the end of the 90-minute flight. Skies remained clear until the flight drew within 4 nm of its destination, where a low layer of cloud obscured the intended landing area. The pilot descended below the clouds to keep the ground in sight, but entered fog that reduced visibility to about one statute mile.
He was initially unable to locate his passengers, who were waiting on a beach rather than in the waiting area described in his preflight briefing. Staying below 500 feet, he began a second circuit, flying a northbound downwind leg while continuing to try to keep his landing zone in sight. The airplane continued to slow, then began to sink during a left turn. The pilot increased power but the floatplane stalled into the lake about 2,000 feet from where the passengers were waiting.
He climbed onto the left float and then the wing as the airplane sank, eventually coming to rest on the bottom with only the vertical stabilizer above the water. He was unable to inflate his personal flotation device and discarded it along with a heavy jacket to swim the 300 feet to shore. Observing the crash, two of the passengers took a boat, found the pilot on the lakeshore, and took him to a nearby cabin where he used his satellite phone to notify his company of the accident.
Meanwhile, SAR aircraft responding to the emergency locator transmitter signal spotted the cabin after about 20 minutes, and rescue personnel parachuted in to tend to the pilot’s injuries. The pilot and rescuers were extracted by helicopter. ζ