Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Inyokern Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Inyokern, California 93527
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 10:07 PDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The helicopter's tail rotor struck a rock outcropping during a confined landing at a remote mountain site. The pilot was moving two surveyors up the side of the southern slope of a mountain canyon. He dropped the surveyors off at a small saddle on a ridge, and departed to locate the next site upslope. He found a rocky outcropping that he thought would be a good landing site, and made one approach, but did not like the location due to uneven terrain. He then hovered over to another site a few yards away and proceeded to land. During the landing the tail rotor made contact with a small rock outcropping. Feeling the contact he proceeded to execute a successful autorotative landing from a hover.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The pilot failed to maintain tail rotor clearance from obstacles during landing.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 9/21/2005 |
| Event Day of the Week | Wednesday |
| Time of Event | 1007 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Daylight Time |
| Event City | Inyokern |
| Event State | CALIFORNIA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 93527 |
| Event Date Year | 2005 |
| Event Date Month | 9 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 354617N |
| Event Location Longitude | 1175447W |
| Event Location Airport | Inyokern |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | KIYK |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | 8.6 |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | 2455 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 956 Pacific Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 290 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | KNID |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 2283 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 12 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | PDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 800 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Few |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 60 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 19 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 17 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | -- |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Variable |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 5 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 30.11 |
| 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 | 1 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 19563 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA |
| NTSB Notification Date | Sep 21 2005 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | -- |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Apr 25 2006 11:00AM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\JOHB |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | WP-FSDO-Van Nuys, CA |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N702WP |
| NTSB Number | LAX05TA306 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | Company VFR |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | Yes |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Bell |
| Aircraft Model | 407 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 53543 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 5250 |
| 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 | 7 |
| Number of Engines | 1 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | 100 Hour |
| Date of Last Inspection | Sep 1 2005 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 19 |
| Airframe Hours | 1498.1 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Los Angeles City Water and Power |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 14401 Saticoy St |
| Aircraft Owner City | Van Nuys |
| Aircraft Owner State | CA |
| Aircraft Owner Country | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 91305 |
| 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) | -- |
| Second Pilot on Board | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | KVNY |
| Departure City | Van Nuys |
| Departure State | CA |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 630 |
| Departure Time Zone | PDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | crash at destination city |
| Destination Airport Code | KIKY |
| Destination City | Inyokern |
| Destination State | CA |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Landing |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Apr 20 2006 3:06PM |
| User who most recently changed record | JOHB |
| 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 | -- |