What happened
On March 9, 2026, at approximately 1517 Pacific daylight time, an MD Helicopters 369FF, registration N530XX, was destroyed during an accident near Mojave, California. The aircraft was operating as a Part 133 external load flight, performing power line rope stringing operations between steel transmission poles within a wind farm in the foothills of the Tehachapi Mountains.
The pilot had been flying since 0730 that morning and had completed several uneventful operations. For the flight in question, the pilot intended to guide a 600-foot rope into a stringing block located approximately 110 feet above ground level (agl) with the assistance of a technician in a boom lift truck bucket.
As the helicopter performed a vertical climb carrying the full length of the rope, it reached an altitude of approximately 200 feet agl. At that moment, the technician in the bucket heard a