Accident Details
On June 25, 2021, at about 1650 central daylight time, a Garlick Helicopters OH-58+, registration N372NS, was substantially damaged during an accident in Alpine, Alabama. The pilot was fatally injured. The helicopter was operating under Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 137 as an aerial application flight.
Flight Operations
Before the accident, the pilot, with a ground crewmember, had been conducting chemical spraying from an abandoned drag strip about 3/4 mile southwest of the accident site. According to the ground crewmember, the pilot had completed about 5 loads (500 acres) and had 5 loads remaining, each taking 15 to 20 minutes. The ground crewmember was not aboard during the accident flight.
A local resident reported hearing a helicopter flying low, followed by a sound like propellers hitting a tree and an explosion. The resident could smell fuel and observed slight smoke but no fire. A video recording of a prior application flight showed the helicopter flying low over an adjacent cornfield, below surrounding trees and powerlines, gaining altitude at the end of each pass to clear obstacles.
Wreckage Examination
The helicopter struck a fiber-optic cable collocated with high-voltage transmission lines on the south side of the cornfield. The transmission lines lacked wire markers. After the initial wire strike, the helicopter impacted terrain about 415 ft away. Debris included a cable piece in a tree and a bent cable core in the cornfield. The helicopter broke into numerous pieces; the landing gear, fuselage, and tailboom sustained impact damage. The main rotor mast, pitch change links, main rotor hub, tail rotor, and tail rotor drive shaft were substantially damaged. Flight control continuity was established from the cockpit to breaks in the cyclic, collective, and anti-torque systems. The engine showed signatures consistent with operation during impact, with compressor blade damage and rotational scoring. The tail rotor drive shaft exhibited twisting indicative of engine power production. One main rotor blade had leading-edge damage and a wire strike signature about 8 inches inboard of the tip; the other blade was missing about 3.5 ft of its outboard portion. Tail rotor blades remained attached but were bent.
Aircraft Information
The helicopter was equipped with high-skid landing gear, a spray system, and a wire strike protection system (cable cutters). It was not equipped with a wire strike prevention system, cockpit voice recorder, or flight data recorder. A Garmin GPS unit and an Ag-Nav unit were recovered but yielded no data due to the GPS track log being off and the Ag-Nav module sustaining internal damage. The pilot held a type rating in the C/S-70 (UH-60) helicopter and had flight time in multiple aircraft, including the OH-58. On June 22, 2005, the same helicopter was involved in an accident in Graham, Texas (NTSB case no. DFW05CA172) where it struck wires during an aerial application flight, causing tailboom separation. FAA records indicated that the major repair after that accident was not documented on FAA Form 337.