Hughes 369D N69PF

Summary

On 22 July 2007 at about 00:40 local time, a Hughes 369D registered N69PF, operated by US Department of the Interior, was involved in an accident near Omak, Washington, United States. One person was on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

22 July 2007 at 00:40

Classification

Accident

Location

Omak, Washington, United States

Coordinates

48.2919, -119.5031

Aircraft

Hughes 369D

Registration

N69PF

Category

Helicopter

Engines

1

Operator

US Department of the Interior

Operating rule

Public Use

Purpose of flight

Fire Fighting

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Omak → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

SEA07TA212

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's failure to maintain clearance from the surface of a pond that he was using as a water bucket refill site, which resulted in a tail rotor strike to the water's surface and a torsional overload failure of the tail rotor drive shaft.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

At the time of the accident, the pilot was descending into a hover over a pond that he was using for an aerial fire bucket refill site. As he began to level off in the hover, he heard a loud noise and felt an "accelerated vibration." Almost immediately thereafter, the helicopter began to spin to the right, so the pilot closed the throttle and made an autorotational landing in about three to four feet of water. A post-accident inspection of the helicopter revealed that the tail rotor driveshaft had failed in torsional overload, and that one of the tail rotor blades had experienced delaminating as a result of contact with the water over which the helicopter was hovering.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.