11 Jul 2017: EUROCOPTER AS 350 B3

11 Jul 2017: EUROCOPTER AS 350 B3 — Unknown operator

No fatalities • King Vale, CA, United States

Probable cause

The pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from trees while landing in a dusty, unimproved landing zone.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

The pilot of the helicopter reported that, during the landing on the unimproved dirt parking lot, dust started to kick up, and he transitioned to looking through the "chin bubble" for a visual point of reference. When the helicopter was about 5 to 6ft. above the ground, the pilot felt a sudden impact, followed by subsequent impacts from the two additional rotor blades impacting what later was found to be a tree. The helicopter "violently" fell to the ground and rolled onto its left side.

The helicopter sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and main rotor system.

The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation.

Contributing factors

  • cause Pilot
  • cause Altitude — Not attained/maintained
  • cause Effect on operation
  • Effect on personnel

Conditions

Weather
VMC, wind 180/09kt, vis 10sm

Loading the flight search…

What you can do on Flight Finder

  • Search flights between any two airports with live fares.
  • By aircraft — pick a plane model (e.g. Boeing 787, Airbus A350) and see every route it flies from your origin.
  • Route map — click any airport worldwide to explore its destinations, or draw a radius to find nearby airports.
  • Global aviation safety — aviation accident database, 5,200+ records since 1980, with map and rankings by aircraft and operator.
  • NTSB safety feed — recent U.S. aviation accidents and incidents from the official NTSB CAROL database, updated daily.

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.