Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Half Moon Bay, California 94019
Saturday, June 19, 1993 4:10 PDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
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.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
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.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 6/19/1993 |
| Event Day of the Week | Saturday |
| Time of Event | 410 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Daylight Time |
| Event City | HALF MOON BAY |
| Event State | CALIFORNIA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 94019 |
| Event Date Year | 1993 |
| Event Date Month | 6 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | |
| Event Location Longitude | |
| Event Location Airport | |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Unknown |
| Investigator's weather source | Pilot |
| Time of the weather observation | 0 |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 0 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 0 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 0 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | |
| Lighting Conditions | Night/Dark |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 0 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 0 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Clear |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | 0 |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 5 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 16 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 13 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 270 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 5 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | 0 |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | Unknown |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | Fatal |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | 0 |
| Injury Total Fatal | 1 |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | -- |
| Injury Total Serious | 1 |
| Injury Total All | 2 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 1044 |
| NTSB Notification Source | -- |
| NTSB Notification Date | Jun 19 1993 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 900 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | IMAGE |
| Date of most recent change to record | Dec 11 2000 1:23PM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N277SP |
| NTSB Number | LAX93LA261 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | N |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | -- |
| Damage | Destroyed |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | MCDONNELL DOUGLAS |
| Aircraft Model | 369D |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | 369D |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 290461D |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 3000 |
| Aircraft Category | Helicopter |
| Aircraft Registration Class | U.S. Registered/U.S. Soil |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 4 |
| Number of Engines | 1 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | 100 Hour |
| Date of Last Inspection | May 7 1993 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- |
| Airframe Hours | -- |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | Yes |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | SKYDANCE HELICOPTERS, INC. |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 1935 N. MARSHALL AVE. |
| Aircraft Owner City | EL CAJON |
| Aircraft Owner State | CA |
| Aircraft Owner Country | |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 92020 |
| Operator is an individual? | -- |
| Operator Name | SKYDANCE OPERATIONS, INC. |
| Operator Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Street Address | P.O.BOX 2259, SUITE 286 |
| Operator City | MINDEN |
| Operator State | NV |
| Operator Country | |
| Operator Zip code | 89423 |
| Operator Code | |
| Owner has at least one certificate | Yes - certificate holder |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | No |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | Unknown |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | -- |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | -- |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | -- |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Positioning |
| Second Pilot on Board | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | Yes |
| Departure Airport Code | |
| Departure City | |
| Departure State | |
| Departure Country | |
| Departure Time | 410 |
| Departure Time Zone | PDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | dest & departure same, accident can occur anywhere |
| Destination Airport Code | |
| Destination City | |
| Destination State | |
| Destination Country | |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Maneuvering |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jan 2 2001 10:34AM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 0 |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |