Bell Helicopter Textron Canada 429 accident near Elba, NY
On April 26, 2022, a Bell Helicopter Textron Canada 429 (helicopter) was involved in an accident near Elba, NY. 2 people died. Damage to the aircraft: substantial.
- Date
- April 26, 2022
- Place
- Elba, NY
- Aircraft
- Bell Helicopter Textron Canada 429 · Helicopter
- Injuries
- 2 fatal, 0 serious, 0 minor
- Damage
- Substantial
- Position
- 43.064°N, 78.139°W
- NTSB ID
- 20220426105004
Official records · ERA22FA207
- Public docket: reports, statements and exhibits from the investigation
NTSB summary
On April 26, 2022, at 1300 eastern daylight time, a Bell Helicopter Textron Canada, 429, N507TJ, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Elba, New York. The flight instructor and pilot receiving instruction were fatally injured. The helicopter was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 instructional flight. A representative of the operator stated that the instructional flight was recurrent training being conducted by the helicopter manufacturer’s flight instructor with multiple training flights planned throughout the day; the accident flight was the second flight of the day. The first pilot who received training from the flight instructor on the morning of the accident flight stated that during their flight they entered vortex ring state (VRS) with a very high descent rate, which was confirmed by the flight data recovered from the accident helicopter. While in VRS, the pilot stated that he didn’t know why they were going so deep into VRS and that the instructor was just sitting there, “hands on his lap.” So, the pilot, feeling uncomfortable at that point, had to exit this very high descent rate on his own rather than waiting for further guidance from the instructor pilot. The helicopter was equipped with an Electronic Data Recorder (EDR) within its Display Unit (DU), also known as the Pilot Flight Display and Multi-Function Display, that recorded flight, navigation, engine, and usage parameters every half second. It was also equipped with a SKYTRAC transceiver that facilitated real-time fleet awareness, group communications, an
Probable cause
The pilots’ inappropriate flight control inputs while in vortex ring state, which resulted in main rotor blade contact with the tail boom and a subsequent in-flight breakup. Also causal was the flight instructor’s inadequate monitoring of the flight.
More accidents in NY
- Airbus Industrie A300B4-605R, Nov 12, 2001
- Boeing 747-131, Jul 18, 1996
- Bombardier Inc DHC-8-402, Feb 13, 2009
- Mitsubishi MU-2B-40, Apr 12, 2025
- Piper PA-31-350, Dec 15, 1989
Browse: New York
Source: NTSB aviation accident database (US government, public domain). Findings may be preliminary or later revised by the NTSB. Not a complete global record.
