Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Mccarran International Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Las Vegas, Nevada 89119
Thursday, February 19, 2004 17:59 PST
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The helicopter experienced an in-flight loss of tail rotor control due to the fatigue fracture and failure of the tail rotor pitch change lever (SN MA 3671). The purpose of this part is to translate forward and aft movement from the tail rotor controls to change the pitch of the tail rotor. The operator had removed the component from the helicopter prior to the arrival of Federal Aviation Administration inspectors, and so the condition of the part as installed could not be determined. Following the incident, the operator discovered a crack on an additional lever (SN MA 3010) in their fleet. The Safety Board Materials Laboratory determined that the fatigue cracks in the two levers were not due to material or manufacturing defects, but were caused by improper installation of the component on the tail rotor gear box. Service Bulletin (SB) No. 65.00.42 was issued in response to cracks found in other levers where the cracks were determined to have been caused by improper installation of the tail rotor gear box pitch control lever bolt. The condition of the incident lever and the second one were found to be identical to the prior cases that triggered the issuance of the service bulletin. The tail rotor gearbox assembly had 3,148.5 hours. The lever is an on-condition part, which is inspected during overhaul of the tail rotor gear box. The overhauls are completed at a normal interval of 3,000 hours; the manufacturer allows a tolerance of 10 percent over the recommended overhaul schedule. When the tail rotor gearbox assembly was submitted for overhaul, a tail rotor pitch change lever different from the one involved in the incident was submitted for inspection. There are no tracking requirements on this part and the time and history of the tail rotor pitch change lever involved in the incident could not be determined.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
the tail rotor pitch change lever failed in fatigue due to improper installation by company maintenance personnel.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Incident |
| Event Date | 2/19/2004 |
| Event Day of the Week | Thursday |
| Time of Event | 1759 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Standard Time |
| Event City | Las Vegas |
| Event State | NEVADA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 89119 |
| Event Date Year | 2004 |
| Event Date Month | 2 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 360449N |
| Event Location Longitude | 1150908W |
| Event Location Airport | McCarran International Airport |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | LAS |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | On Airport |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | 2181 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Full |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1756 Pacific Standard Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | -- |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | LAS |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 2181 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | -- |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | PST |
| Lighting Conditions | Night |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 25000 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 10000 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Scattered |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | Broken |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 17 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -2 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 290 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 7 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29.97 |
| 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 | 6 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 19002 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA |
| NTSB Notification Date | Feb 19 2004 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 1830 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jan 31 2006 7:35AM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\JOHB |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | WP-LAS-FSDO |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N358NT |
| NTSB Number | LAX04IA133 |
| 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 | Minor |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Eurocopter |
| Aircraft Model | AS 350B |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 1016 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 4630 |
| 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 | 7 |
| Number of Engines | 1 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | 100 Hour |
| Date of Last Inspection | Feb 18 2004 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 8.8 |
| Airframe Hours | 4426.6 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Heli USA Airways, Inc. |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 275 E. Tropicana Ave STE 200 |
| Aircraft Owner City | Las Vegas |
| Aircraft Owner State | NV |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 89109 |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| Operator Name | HELI USA INC |
| 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 | H6UA |
| 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 | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | KGCN |
| Departure City | Grand Canyon |
| Departure State | AZ |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1715 |
| Departure Time Zone | PST |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | LAS |
| Destination City | Las Vegas |
| Destination State | NV |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Cruise |
| Report sent to ICAO? | No |
| Evacuation occurred | No |
| Date of most recent change to record | Oct 21 2005 5:25PM |
| User who most recently changed record | COOS |
| Since inspection or accident | Time of Accident |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 1L |
| Runway Length | 9765 |
| Runway Width | 150 |
| Sight Seeing flight | Yes |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |