What happened
On April 18, 2012, an Aerospatiale AS350 B2 Ecureuil, registration N191EH, was performing a landing on a snow-covered glacier near Valdez, Alaska. The aircraft was equipped with high skids at the time of the event. Upon touchdown, both skids sank into the snow, causing the tail rotor to make contact with the terrain. The impact resulted in substantial damage to the tail rotor gearbox and the tail rotor drive shaft. There were no injuries resulting from the incident.
The investigation
The investigation confirmed that the aircraft's tail rotor drive shaft and tail rotor gearbox sustained significant damage. The pilot reported that there were no mechanical anomalies present with the helicopter prior to the accident. Weather conditions at the time were visual meteorological conditions (VMC) with 10 statute mile visibility.