10 Apr 2019: GASKINS SAFARI 400 No Series

10 Apr 2019: GASKINS SAFARI 400 No Series — Unknown operator

No fatalities • Gallatin, TN, United States

Probable cause

The pilot/owner's improper decision to make a right turn instead of terminating the approach to a hover and his subsequent loss of helicopter control while attempting to land on sloping terrain, which resulted in a roll-over.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

The pilot/owner stated that the helicopter was at or near its maximum allowable gross weight and required maximum engine power to hover in ground effect. After a brief local flight, the pilot completed an approach to the parallel taxiway beyond the parking area. Instead of performing a 180°pedal turn over the pavement to reverse course, the pilot initiated a teardrop-shaped turn. The helicopter turned to the right below effective translational lift (ETL) airspeed, the terrain sloped away from beneath the helicopter and once in an out-of-ground effect, higher power-demand condition, the engine could not produce the necessary power to maintain full operating rpm. The helicopter then descended below the height of the taxiway, the pilot attempted to perform a landing to rough, sloping terrain, and the helicopter rolled over and came to rest on its side. Following the accident, the pilot stated that during the accident the helicopter was performing "beautifully." He provided a comprehensive review of the events and suggested that better preflight and inflight performance planning, and inflight power management would have prevented the accident.

Contributing factors

  • cause Pilot
  • cause Pilot
  • cause Performance/control parameters — Not attained/maintained
  • cause Effect on operation

Conditions

Weather
VMC, wind 120/08kt, 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.