Kaman K-600 accident near Nordman, ID
On November 20, 2003, a Kaman K-600 (helicopter) was involved in an accident near Nordman, ID. 1 person died. Damage to the aircraft: substantial.
- Date
- November 20, 2003
- Place
- Nordman, ID
- Aircraft
- Kaman K-600 · Helicopter
- Injuries
- 1 fatal, 0 serious, 0 minor
- Damage
- Substantial
- Position
- 48.653°N, 116.815°W
- NTSB ID
- 20031212X02029
NTSB summary
On November 20, 2003, approximately 1545 Pacific standard time, a Kaman Husky K-600 helicopter impacted the terrain about 8 miles northeast of Nordman, Idaho. The commercial pilot received fatal injuries, and the aircraft, which is owned and operated by JC Helicopter of Newport, Washington, sustained substantial damage. The 14 CFR Part 133 commercial long-line logging flight was being operated in visual meteorological conditions. The flight was being conducted at a remote logging site, and there was no filed flight plan. According to the individuals who were hooking the load of logs to the helicopter, after having its long-line hooked to multiple chocker cables, the helicopter was ascending in a hover in order to take the slack out of the long-line. About the time that the ends of the first logs of the load were going to be lifted off the ground, witnesses heard a loud bang and then saw numerous pieces of the rotor blades flying through the air. Immediately thereafter the helicopter dropped straight down from an altitude of between 150 and 200 feet above the ground. At the accident site, the right rotor mast was found to have separated on a fracture line that passed through the lower portion of one of the L-crank slots, and then proceeded around the remainder of the shaft's circumference, passing below the L-crank slot on the opposite side of the mast. The mast was recovered and shipped to the NTSB's Materials Laboratory division, where it underwent further examination and testing. That examination revealed fatigue arrest markings on the portion of the fracture that extende
Probable cause
The total failure of the helicopter's right main rotor shaft while in an ascending hover due to the propagation of a fatigue crack that initiated in a corrosion pit on the surface of a slot in the wall of the subject shaft. Factors include accumulation of corrosion on the surface of the shaft.
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Browse: Idaho
Source: NTSB aviation accident database (US government, public domain). Findings may be preliminary or later revised by the NTSB. Not a complete global record.
