What happened
A helicopter carrying a pilot and six passengers departed Juneau, Alaska, for a scheduled 50-minute flight over mountainous glaciers. Approximately ten minutes after a routine radio transmission, the aircraft was located by another company helicopter operating in the same area. The AS-350 impacted a nearly level, snow-covered glacier. All 7 occupants sustained fatal injuries.
Evidence from the impact site showed the leading edge of the crater was angled between 30 and 45 degrees below the horizon, with the airspeed indicator showing a needle slap mark at 130 knots. Nearby pilots reported that "flat light" conditions made it difficult to distinguish the featureless, snow-covered terrain from the overcast ceiling. Photographs taken shortly after the accident confirmed that the mountain pass the pilot was attempting to navigate was nearly indistinguishable from the clouds and glacier surface.
The investigation
A post-accident inspection of the aircraft revealed no evidence of mechanical anomalies prior to the crash. The helicopter was equipped with a gyroscopic pitch and bank indicator.
The investigation reviewed the pilot's training and experience. At the time of the accident, the pilot had 7.9 hours of experience in AS-350 helicopters and 37.5 total hours in turbine-powered helicopters with the accident company; this was only his second day operating the aircraft solo. While the pilot's resume claimed 891 helicopter flight hours, investigators estimated he actually had 612 hours at the time of hire.
The investigation also examined regulatory and training oversight. The company's approved training program met FAA minimums of 16 hours for both indoctrination and ground training, though the national norm is 24 hours. Although FAA Order 8400.10 requires pilots to demonstrate the ability to control a helicopter solely by reference to instruments during competency checks, this requirement was not in the company's approved manual, and the pilot had received no emergency instrument training.