Robinson R44 N1241W

Summary

On 17 June 2019 at about 23:50 local time, a Robinson R44 registered N1241W, operated by Air Adventures Helicopters, was involved in an accident near Key West, Florida, United States. 3 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

17 June 2019 at 23:50

Classification

Accident

Location

Key West, Florida, United States

Coordinates

24.5517, -81.7644

Aircraft

Robinson R44

Registration

N1241W

Category

Helicopter

Year built

2016

Engines

1

Operator

Air Adventures Helicopters

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Aerial Observation

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Key West → Key West

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN19LA174

Nobody was injured.

The failure of maintenance personnel to properly secure the right-side tail boom mounting bolts which resulted in the failure of the bolts and an inflight separation of the tail rotor.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

Shortly after departure, the pilot detected rapid vibrations from the tail of the helicopter. While returning to the airport, the mounting bolts that secured the tail rotor gearbox to the tail boom failed, which resulted in the separation of the tail rotor. The pilot lost yaw control of the helicopter, but successfully performed an autorotation to the water below. A postaccident examination of the mounting hardware between the tail rotor gearbox input cartridge and the tail boom mating flange found that two of the four bolts were missing; both missing bolts came from the right side of the connection. The left side bolts remained secured in place. The missing bolts’ holes in the input cartridge were deformed and were out of round. All of the 4 bolt holes on the input cartridge displayed imprints from the bolt threads, with the deepest imprints on the right sides of the holes, consistent with movement between the lug holes and the bolt shanks. All tail boom flange bolt holes were examined and found that the threading was present, not stripped, and locking inserts present. About 60 hours before the accident, the tail boom assembly was removed and replaced. As part of this maintenance, the tail rotor input cartridge and gearbox would have been removed from the old tailboom and placed on the new tailboom. It is likely that, during this procedure, the right-side mounting bolts were not completely secured to the tail boom casting locking inserts and properly torqued, which resulted in the failure of the right side mounting bolts. The helicopter was flown earlier that day without incident or indication of impending failure.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.