Individually Owned: 151,845
Corporate Owned: 143,699
Salinas Muni Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Salinas, California 93905
Wednesday, July 30, 2003 10:56 PDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The commercial helicopter pilot reported that while in cruise flight, the helicopter developed a severe vibration. The vibration was so extreme that he was not able to read any of his flight instruments. He declared an emergency, started a slow descent, and made a run-on landing to a dirt field. A post-incident inspection revealed that the right forward transmission lift link had failed at the lower rod end assembly. The failure point was in the threaded area of the rod end. The total time on the failed part (p/n 222-331-626-105) was 3,890.8 hours total time since new. The lift link assembly was the original part installed on the incident helicopter. The lift link assembly was shipped to the National Transportation Safety Board, Materials Laboratory and forwarded to Bell Helicopters for further analysis. It was determined that the link fracture was a result of fatigue in a thread root of the lower elastometric rod end bearing housing. No material discrepancies or deficiencies were found in the rod end bearing housing.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The fatigue failure (fracture) of the right forward transmission lift link during cruise flight, which resulted in a severe vibration and an emergency landing.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Incident |
| Event Date | 7/30/2003 |
| Event Day of the Week | Wednesday |
| Time of Event | 1056 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Daylight Time |
| Event City | SALINAS |
| Event State | CALIFORNIA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 93905 |
| Event Date Year | 2003 |
| Event Date Month | 7 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 363900N |
| Event Location Longitude | 1213600W |
| Event Location Airport | SALINAS MUNI |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | SNS |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | 2 |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | 30 |
| Airport Elevation | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Not pertinent |
| Investigator's weather source | Pilot |
| Time of the weather observation | |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | -- |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | -- |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | -- |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | -- |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | -- |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | -- |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Clear |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 6 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 29 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -- |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 240 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 5 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29.95 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | None |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | 4 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 16887 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA |
| NTSB Notification Date | Aug 4 2003 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 1200 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Dec 28 2004 12:45PM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\JOHB |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | WP-FSDO-OAKLAND |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N29KH |
| NTSB Number | LAX03IA252 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | Company VFR |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | No |
| Damage | None |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Bell |
| Aircraft Model | 222 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 47053 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 7850 |
| 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 | 6 |
| Number of Engines | 2 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Retractable |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Continuous Airworthiness |
| Date of Last Inspection | May 20 2003 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 118.7 |
| Airframe Hours | 3890.8 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | CALIFORNIA SHOCK-TRAUMA AIR RESCUE |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 20876B Corsair Blvd. |
| Aircraft Owner City | Hayward |
| Aircraft Owner State | CA |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 94545 |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| Operator Name | -- |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | -- |
| Operator City | -- |
| Operator State | -- |
| Operator Country | -- |
| Operator Zip code | -- |
| Operator Code | STRA |
| Owner has at least one certificate | -- |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | -- |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | Non-scheduled |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | Domestic |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | Passenger Only |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | -- |
| Second Pilot on Board | -- |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | -- |
| Departure City | Hollister |
| Departure State | CA |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1050 |
| Departure Time Zone | PDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | SNS |
| Destination City | Salinas |
| Destination State | CA |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Cruise - normal |
| Report sent to ICAO? | Yes |
| Evacuation occurred | Yes |
| Date of most recent change to record | Oct 27 2004 11:40AM |
| User who most recently changed record | LABJ |
| Since inspection or accident | Last Inspection |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | NA |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | Yes |
| Medical Flight | Medical Emergency |