McDonnell Douglas 369D N277SP

Summary

On 19 June 1993 at about 11:10 local time, a McDonnell Douglas 369D registered N277SP, operated by Skydance Operations, Inc., was involved in an accident near Half Moon Bay, California, United States. 2 people were on board and one died, one was seriously injured. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

19 June 1993 at 11:10

Classification

Accident

Location

Half Moon Bay, California, United States

Coordinates

37.4390, -122.4099

Aircraft

McDonnell Douglas 369D

Registration

N277SP

Category

Helicopter

Engines

1

Operator

Skydance Operations, Inc.

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Positioning

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Night/Dark

NTSB number

LAX93LA261

1 person died.

the pilots failure to maintain an adequate clearance from the light tower and associated electrical power cables. Factors in the accident were; 1) pilot fatigue due to an excessively long duty day, and 2) glare from the lights which affected the pilot's ability to clearly see the obsturctions.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot departed his residence in the southern California area at 1030 on June 18th and flew commercially to Reno, Nevada. The pilot was to pick up the helicopter and ferry it to a movie filming location at the accident site, where it was to be used as a camera platform. The pilot arrived in Reno at 1300 hours and was informed that the helicopter was not at the airport and ground transportation would be sent to take him to the helicopter. The pilot waited in the airport terminal until 1630 hours for ground transportation to arrive. At 1745 hours the pilot departed in the accident helicopter and arrived at the filming site about 1850 hours. The actual filming started just after midnight on saturday morning and concluded at 0300 hours that morning. About 0410 hours the pilot was maneuvering the helicopter to depart the area when it collided with a power cable attached to an illuminated bank of high intensity lights mounted on top of a 125 foot tall telescoping tower used during the filming. The impact occurred on the same side of the tower as the two million candle power lights. The accident occurred about 17 hours after the pilot had departed his residence.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.