Accident · 2011-08-26

What the record says

Event date

2011-08-26

Event type

Accident

Highest injury level

Fatal injury

Aircraft

EUROCOPTER AS-350-B2 (N352LN)

Operating rule

Part 135

Operator

Air Methods Corp. Operator named in NTSB report

Operated by (per NTSB report)

Air Methods Corporation

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to confirm that the helicopter had adequate fuel on board to complete the mission before making the first departure, his improper decision to continue the mission and make a second departure after he became aware of a critically low fuel level, and his failure to successfully enter an autorotation when the engine lost power due to fuel exhaustion. Contributing to the accident were (1) the pilot's distracted attention due to personal texting during safety-critical ground and flight operations, (2) his degraded performance due to fatigue, (3) the operator's lack of a policy requiring that an operational control center specialist be notified of abnormal fuel situations, and (4) the lack of practice representative of an actual engine failure at cruise airspeed in the pilot's autorotation training in the accident make and model helicopter.

Flight crew

Certification and experience as recorded in the NTSB accident database for this event. The NTSB records these facts about the crew's flying history; GroundCheck shows them as filed, without names or identities.