Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Calabasas, California 91302
Wednesday, May 4, 2005 11:45 PDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The left auxiliary power unit (APU) door departed the helicopter in flight and contacted the main rotor blades. The pilot made precautionary landing. The APU door is located on the top of the helicopter, near the main rotor blades, and it is secured using two upper and lower, push-pin type snap latches. Following the accident, the latches were located separately in a field; each latch remained secured to portions of the door material. The APU door is opened and secured by maintenance daily and its security was verified by the pilot during the preflight. Post accident examination of the two fractured sections of left APU door with latches and the two hinge keepers showed that the hinge keepers failed as a result of fatigue fractures and allowed the door to separate in flight. Review of the manufacturer's process specifications disclosed that the failed hinge keepers were manufactured by a now superceded production process. This superceded production process introduced contamination, which resulted in fatigue of the hinge keepers. A new hinge was designed and implemented over 2 years prior to the accident; however, there was no recall by the helicopter manufacturer to replace the older design. In the United States, two civilian operators use this helicopter (five helicopters total) and the primary operator is the United States military. The United States military has classified this as a low-risk issue. Due to the damage sustained to the parts, the manufacturer was unable to confirm that the problem would have been detectable by flight crew or maintenance personnel prior to the accident flight using the current inspection methods.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
fatigue of the forward keeper due to known flaws in the manufacturing process.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 5/4/2005 |
| Event Day of the Week | Wednesday |
| Time of Event | 1145 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Daylight Time |
| Event City | Calabasas |
| Event State | CALIFORNIA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 91302 |
| Event Date Year | 2005 |
| Event Date Month | 5 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 340900N |
| Event Location Longitude | 1183900W |
| 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 | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1151 Pacific Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 80 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | VNY |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 802 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 8 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | PDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 8500 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 1400 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Few |
| 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) | 18 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 13 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 170 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 11 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29.94 |
| 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 | 3 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 20191 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA |
| NTSB Notification Date | May 5 2005 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 1100 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Aug 29 2006 3:49PM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\JOHB |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | WP-VNY-FSDO |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N160LA |
| NTSB Number | LAX05TA156 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Public Use |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | No |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Sikorsky |
| Aircraft Model | S-70A |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 702453 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 23500 |
| Aircraft Category | Helicopter |
| Aircraft Registration Class | -- |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 13 |
| Number of Engines | 2 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Continuous Airworthiness |
| Date of Last Inspection | Apr 1 2005 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 3.5 |
| Airframe Hours | 1298.5 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Los Angeles County Fire Department |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 12605 Osborne St |
| Aircraft Owner City | Los Angeles |
| Aircraft Owner State | CA |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 91331 |
| 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 | -- |
| Owner has at least one certificate | None |
| 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 | -- |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | -- |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | -- |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Public Use |
| Second Pilot on Board | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | -- |
| Departure City | Pacoima |
| Departure State | CA |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1130 |
| Departure Time Zone | PDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | -- |
| Destination City | Malibu |
| Destination State | CA |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Cruise |
| Report sent to ICAO? | No |
| Evacuation occurred | No |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jun 2 2006 6:03PM |
| User who most recently changed record | COOS |
| Since inspection or accident | Time of Accident |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | NA |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |