Accident Summary
On September 11, 2025, at about 1402 eastern daylight time, a Hughes (McDonnell Douglas) 369D helicopter, registration N5072F, was destroyed when it crashed near Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. The commercial pilot and line technician on board were fatally injured. The helicopter was being operated under Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 133 as an external load flight.
Flight Details
The helicopter departed a landing zone at about 1400 with 45 gallons of Jet-A fuel to perform work approximately 1 mile away near a 120-ft-tall transmission tower. The task involved measuring and marking sections along a fiber optic wire located above the transmission wires; anti-galloping devices were planned for later installation on the conductor wire below. The line technician was positioned on a skid plate on the left side of the helicopter, behind the pilot seat, with colored tape to adhere to the fiber optic wire at designated positions.
No witnesses observed the accident sequence. Other line technicians working about 2 miles away reported feeling and hearing vibrations in the lines around the time of the crash.
Wreckage
The wreckage came to rest in a vertical nose-down position adjacent to the transmission tower, with severed fiber optic wire, oriented on a magnetic heading of about 210°. The fuel tank was breached, releasing a strong odor of Jet-A fuel; residual fuel was found in the tank and on the ground.
Four of the five main rotor blades (MRB) separated from the hub, and the tailboom also separated. One MRB remained partially attached to the hub and was curled around the wreckage. Two other MRBs were located forward of the main wreckage, one bent downward near mid-span and the other curled downward near the tip. A section of a fourth MRB was found in a tree aft of the wreckage, and the fifth MRB was on the ground further aft, exhibiting buckling near the outboard leading edge. A smaller outboard section of an MRB was about 200 ft forward.
Tail components were scattered: the upper vertical and horizontal stabilizer were about 70 ft aft; sections of the tailboom, tailrotor driveshaft, tailrotor gearbox, lower vertical stabilizer, and separated tailrotor were together about 40 ft aft. The tailrotor hub had separated from the gearbox; one blade remained attached, bent about 45° near the inboard third. The other blade separated about 4 inches from the root, with an impact scrape indentation on the inboard leading edge.
Pilot Information
The pilot held a commercial pilot certificate with a rotorcraft-helicopter rating. He reported a total flight experience of 11,700 hours on his most recent application for a Federal Aviation Administration second-class medical certificate, dated November 25, 2024. According to the operator, 2,626 of those hours were in the same make and model as the accident helicopter.
Aircraft Information
The helicopter was manufactured in 1981 and equipped with an Allison (Rolls-Royce) 250-C20R/2 engine rated at 450 shaft horsepower. It was maintained under a manufacturer's approved inspection program. The most recent 100-hour inspection was completed on June 21, 2025, at which time the airframe had accrued 7,985 total hours and the engine 6,009 total hours. Between that inspection and the accident, the helicopter flew 78.2 hours. The wreckage was retained for further examination.