Aircraft Accident Brief
Crash of Sundance Helicopters, Inc.
Aerospatiale AS350BA, N270SH
Near Grand Canyon West Airport, Arizona
September 20, 2003

NTSB/AAB-07/03
PDF Document [1.6 MB]

Accident Number:	LAX03MA292
Operator:	Sundance Helicopters, Inc.
Aircraft and Registration:	Aerospatiale AS350BA, N270SH
Location:	Near Grand Canyon West Airport, Arizona
Date:	September 20, 2003
Adopted On:	October 30, 2007

HISTORY OF FLIGHT

On September 20, 2003, about 1238 mountain standard time, 1 an Aerospatiale AS350BA 2 helicopter, N270SH, operated by Sundance Helicopters, Inc., crashed into a canyon wall while maneuvering through Descent Canyon, about 1.5 nautical miles (nm) east of Grand Canyon West Airport (1G4) in Arizona. The pilot and all six passengers on board were killed, and the helicopter was destroyed by impact forces and postcrash fire. The air tour sightseeing flight was operated under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 135. Visual meteorological conditions (VMC) prevailed for the flight, which was operated under visual flight rules on a company flight plan. The helicopter was transporting passengers from a helipad at 1G4 (helipad elevation 4,775 feet mean sea level [msl]) near the upper rim of the Grand Canyon to a helipad designated “the Beach” 3 (elevation 1,300 msl) located next to the Colorado River at the floor of the Grand Canyon.

About 0745, the accident pilot flew the accident helicopter on an operational check flight at the company’s base at McCarran International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, Nevada. After the short local flight, Sundance ground personnel (consisting of loaders and a tour coordinator) boarded the helicopter about 0840 and flew with the accident pilot on a 45-minute flight from LAS to 1G4 to commence the day’s Descent Canyon tour operations. The director of operations estimated that each flight from 1G4 to the Beach helipad lasted about 3.5 minutes (see figure 1).

Figure 1. Topographic chart showing the 1G4 departure site, the accident site, and the prescribed route through Descent Canyon to the Beach helipad.

These flights were part of an advertised tour package in which Sundance pilots flew passengers through Descent Canyon, dropped them off at the Beach helipad for a scenic boat ride on the Colorado River, then picked them up at the Beach helipad later in the day for a return flight to 1G4 through another scenic canyon. 4

The accident flight was the pilot’s 11th flight through Descent Canyon that day. The helicopter lifted off from 1G4 about 1237 and flew to the rim of Descent Canyon. The tour coordinator stated that she did not hear the pilot make either the first customary radio call 5 stating that he was lifting off from the helipad or the second customary radio call advising that he was entering Descent Canyon en route to the Beach helipad. A pilot for Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopters, who departed in his helicopter from 1G4 and flew through Descent Canyon about 2 minutes before the accident flight, stated that he did not hear any radio calls from the accident pilot and did not know that a helicopter was behind him in the canyon.

The Sundance tour coordinator and a Papillon loader at 1G4 stated that they observed the accident helicopter hover at the rim of Descent Canyon for about 30 to 45 seconds before beginning a level descent. They stated that the helicopters usually flew directly from the loading pads to the top of Descent Canyon and either nosed down into the canyon or hovered for only a few seconds before descending nose-low into the canyon. The Sundance tour coordinator stated that ground personnel assumed that the accident pilot may have been waiting for the Papillon helicopter to clear the canyon before he initiated his descent.

The Papillon pilot who descended his helicopter ahead of the accident flight stated that, while he was approaching the helipad next to the Colorado River, he noticed a fireball rising on the canyon wall behind him in Descent Canyon. There were no known witnesses or air traffic control radar data to provide information on the accident flight’s progress inside the canyon after it descended out of view of the witnesses at 1G4.

The main wreckage was located on a canyon wall ledge about 400 feet beyond a near‑vertical canyon wall that showed evidence of gouging consistent with a main rotor blade strike (see figure 2). 6

Note: This photograph was taken by a National Transportation Safety Board investigator on February 4, 2004, during a canyon topography documentation flight. The wreckage was previously removed from the site.

Figure 2. Initial main rotor blade impact location and main wreckage location.

Personnel Information

The Pilot

The pilot, age 44, held an airline transport pilot certificate for airplane multiengine land and rotorcraft-helicopter and commercial pilot privileges for airplane single-engine land. Additionally, he held a certified flight instructor certificate with ratings for airplane single and multiengine, rotorcraft-helicopter, and instrument airplane and helicopter. A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) first-class airman medical certificate was issued to the pilot on September 16, 2003, with no restrictions.

The accident pilot owned and operated a flight school in Rancho Cucamonga, California, from January 1990 to May 2000. When Sundance hired the pilot in May 2000, he had logged 5,400 total flight hours, 4,360 hours of which were in helicopters. At the time of the accident, the pilot had logged about 7,860 total flight hours, 6,775 hours of which were in helicopters. Company records indicated that he flew about 2,300 hours in Sundance’s AS350BA, AS350B2, or Bell 206 helicopters. Sundance records indicated that the pilot had flown about 228, 86, and 25 hours in the 90, 30, and 7 days, respectively, preceding the accident. The pilot completed his recurrent ground training in the AS350 on February 20, 2003; his recurrent flight training in the AS350 on June 29, 2003; and his last 14 CFR Part 135 check in the AS350 on July 27, 2003. FAA records indicated no accident, incident, or enforcement action involving the pilot.

Statements from Passengers from an Earlier Tour with the Accident Pilot

National Transportation Safety Board investigators were able to locate and obtain statements from some passengers who had flown with the accident pilot earlier that day. 7 A passenger on board a tour that departed about 1000  stated that the pilot hovered the helicopter near the top of the canyon for a few moments then “banked right and nose-dived into the canyon.” He stated that the canyon was very narrow during part of the descent and that the pilot was flying the helicopter “very fast and swerving back and forth.” He stated that the flight back to the top was uneventful until the pilot hovered the helicopter “very close” to the canyon wall about 100 feet from the canyon rim. He stated that the pilot followed the contour of the canyon wall closely and made “quick movements and fast stops” that the passenger considered excessive. According to the passenger, the company owner called him after the accident and told him that Sundance pilots “were not supposed to fly the way the pilot had flown them into the canyon that [day].”

Another passenger on the same flight described the initial descent into the canyon as a “severe drop” without warning. She described the descent as a “scary, free fall ride.” A third passenger on the same flight stated that the pilot “pointed the nose of the helicopter straight down into the canyon, and the helicopter tilted to the right during the descent.” He stated that no one took pictures during the descent because “they were all hanging on with both hands” and that his friend’s wife screamed during the entire descent to the canyon floor.

Previous Passenger Complaints About the Accident Pilot

On July 5, 2001, Sundance received a fax from a passenger who complained about the accident pilot’s flying after a Descent Canyon flight on June 1, 2001. The passenger demanded a refund and stated, “being a heart patient with … a very dangerous pilot in charge of the helicopter, I thought I was about to die. He flew so fast and dangerous, I could not believe his behavior.” No evidence was found indicating that Sundance had taken action against the pilot in response to this fax.

In a memorandum dated August 17, 2001, Sundance’s chief pilot informed the pilot and the company’s director of operations of disciplinary action to be taken against the pilot because of another customer complaint about his flying. The memo stated that the owner of Air Vegas took a ride from 1G4 to the Beach helipad and reported “that he was asked if he wanted a helicopter ride or an ‘E’ ticket ride. 8 He received a ride that included abrupt banks 9 and that did not meet the standards [of the] Tour Operators Program of Safety (TOPS).” 10 The memo concluded that “this type of flying is not tolerated at Sundance Helicopters and is grounds for disciplinary action.” The memo informed the pilot that he was being suspended for 1 week without pay, and the pilot signed it, acknowledging that he had received and read it.

A review of Sundance flight records revealed evidence that the flight suspension had not been enforced. In an April 12, 2004, e-mail to Safety Board investigators, Sundance’s director of operations stated that the pilot was not suspended immediately because “at that time we were short of pilots.” He added that the company decided to have the accident pilot “serve his suspension later when we were not as busy or had more pilots.” He stated that, “after a couple of months when the activity slowed down, the chief pilot and I forgot to enforce the suspension.”

Statements from Sundance Helicopters’ and Other Operators’ Personnel

A former Sundance tour coordinator and loader stated that she had flown many times with the accident pilot on the Descent Canyon route and that “hundreds of people flew with [the accident pilot] and knew the way he flew … he scared people down the canyon.” She stated that on those flights she thought “if one little thing goes wrong, we are, you know, dead.” She added, “[w]hen he had tours … I could hear tourists screaming [on the radio] as he went in.” She provided Safety Board investigators a copy of a videotape she filmed during a flight through Descent Canyon with the accident pilot in November 2001. She stated that the accident pilot “flew very close to the canyon wall. Banked off one wall and then turned the other way, almost upside down.” 11

A former Sundance pilot who flew for the company from July 2000 to June 2003 stated that the accident pilot was “an extremely good pilot, above average. He was more qualified in the helicopter than the job demanded; he was a phenomenal man to work with.” He stated that flight profiles for descents into Descent Canyon were “typically 10º to 15º nose-down, no more than 30º angle of bank. Those were Sundance Helicopters’ rules and didn’t change in the canyon.” He noted that those limits were sometimes exceeded with bank angles of “at least 60º to 70º, 30º to 40º nose-low.” He added that the accident pilot “worked the helicopter, pushed the aircraft, and pushed the rules of flight in Descent Canyon.”

The former Sundance tour coordinator and a Papillon operations manager at 1G4 stated that the accident pilot was known as “Kamikaze.” The Papillon operations manager stated that he first heard the name used in reference to the accident pilot from two other Papillon ground employees. He stated that they used the name after watching him fly over Papillon’s helicopters during refueling or passenger loading operations in a manner that involved stopping his helicopter in a hover, dipping its nose towards them, and then going on. He added that the accident pilot flew over him many times and that “I know how he flew.” The Papillon operations manager stated that many pilots talked about the accident pilot’s flying and that Papillon’s chief of safety had discussed these concerns with the accident pilot. He noted that the accident pilot “was always very nice, but didn’t change.” The former Sundance pilot acknowledged that the accident pilot “was called a name. He had the name for flying the [expletive] off the helicopter.” He added, “I went to him and talked to him about it. Personally, I have never seen him take the helicopter to any point he could not easily bring it back from.”

Another Sundance pilot, who was also flying Descent Canyon tours from 1G4 on the day of the accident, estimated that the accident pilot flew the descent “doing 120 to 140 knots.” She stated that “some pilots would keep it a little lower, 110 to 120 knots.” She stated that she “hugged the left side of the canyon in case she got a jack stall 12 during the descent.”

Sundance’s director of operations stated that descent rates into the canyon were likely at least 2,000 feet per minute (fpm). He added that he thought most pilots flew at speeds between 100 and 110 knots at an average descent rate of about 1,000 fpm; however, he noted that descent rates could reach up to 1,500 to 2,000 fpm and “possibly as high as 2,500 feet per minute.” He noted that pilots descend from about 4,800 feet to about 1,200 feet msl (about 3,600 feet) in 3 to 3.5 minutes.

Aircraft Information

General

The accident helicopter was originally an AS350B model, serial number 1864, manufactured on October 23, 1985. On April 18, 1996, the helicopter was converted to an AS350BA model in accordance with Eurocopter Service Bulletin (SB) 01.35R2, dated April 19, 1995. 13 Modifications included structural changes, new main rotor blades, a new tail rotor, and modifications to the drive system. 14

Sundance purchased the helicopter on March 2, 1999, and the helicopter’s registration was issued on June 17, 1999. Sundance modified the helicopter in May 2002 in accordance with Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) SR00805SE, replacing the original Turbomecca Arriel engine with a Honeywell LTS 101-600A-3A engine. 15 At the time of the accident, the helicopter had accumulated about 10,890 hours total time and 54,976 cycles. 16 The engine had accumulated about 9,516 hours total time and 12,465 cycles. 17 The helicopter was not equipped and was not required to be equipped with a flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder.

Maintenance and Inspection History

The helicopter’s last 30-hour, 100-hour, and 500-hour inspections were accomplished on September 17, 2003, at an aircraft time of about 10,880 hours. Thirty-hour inspections were also completed on September 3, 8, and 13, 2003. One-hundred-hour and 200-hour inspections were also completed on September 3, 2003. No discrepancies were noted with any of the records for these inspections. Safety Board investigators reviewed the helicopter’s maintenance log sheets for the period from January 1, 2002, to September 19, 2003. No discrepancies were noted with any of the records, and the records indicated that all airworthiness directives and SBs were accomplished.

The computer-generated and -maintained status printout, generated on September 22, 2003 (which comprises inspections that are due or life-limited parts that have overhaul or retirement times and on-condition replacement), was reviewed. The printout was compared to the daily maintenance logs for accuracy and to determine whether required inspections had been accomplished; no discrepancies were found.

The company maintenance malfunction/information reports, comprising concise descriptions of the aircraft data; engine data; reported part data; and replacement part data, were also reviewed. The form is primarily used to document premature part removals and unscheduled maintenance events. No discrepancies were noted.

Incident History

Two incidents involving the accident helicopter were identified following a query of Safety Board and FAA accident and incident databases for the time period since Sundance acquired the helicopter. The first incident occurred on May 23, 2000, during an attempted landing at a remote helipad in which the vertical fin assembly struck a rock and received minor damage. The helicopter was inspected and repaired in accordance with Eurocopter-approved inspection and repair procedures. On July 30, 2000, the helicopter was involved in a second incident, which occurred during a turn in low-level flight when a main rotor blade struck a tree. The helicopter was inspected and repaired in accordance with Eurocopter-approved repair procedures.

Three precautionary landings as a result of in-flight anomalies were recorded in the helicopter’s maintenance logs. None of the precautionary landings resulted in damage, and the anomalies were resolved according to maintenance manual procedures. The events and associated corrective actions were recorded as follows:

• July 14, 2002: Engine chip light - removed, cleaned chip detector plug, penalty run, returned to service.
• June 4, 2003: Lost A[/]C and hydraulics - replaced A[/]C & hydraulic belts, test flown, returned to service.
• September 2, 2003: Engine failure (governor failure) - R[emoved] & R[eplaced] governor, test flown, returned to service.

Weight and Balance

Sundance personnel computed the helicopter’s weight and balance for the accident flight. The helicopter’s gross weight was calculated to be 4,107 pounds 18 with a center of gravity (c.g.) of 128.4 inches aft of datum. According to the Eurocopter Flight Manual, the weight and c.g. were within operational limits.

Meteorological Information

Sundance provided pilots a one-page weather summary for the Las Vegas area compiled at 0730 on the day of the accident. The summary, initialed by the accident pilot and other pilots who read it, reported the current weather as winds from 210° at 4 knots, visibility 10 statute miles (sm) and clear below 12,000 feet, and a temperature of 19° Celsius (C). The forecast weather was listed as winds from 040° at 5 knots until 1000, and 040° at 5 knots from 1000 to 2000. The summary did not contain weather information for the Grand Canyon area, and 1G4 did not have official weather reporting capability. Witnesses in the Grand Canyon West area at the time of the accident reported clear skies and no turbulence.

The closest official National Weather Service (NWS) observation station was at Kingman Airport, Kingman, Arizona, about 49 nm south of the accident site. The weather observation at 1256 was reported as wind from 350° at 4 knots gusting to 14 knots, visibility unrestricted at 10 sm, sky clear below 12,000 feet, temperature 32° C, dew point temperature -6° C.

A review of infrared satellite imagery collected from 1200 through 1300 revealed that no significant clouds or weather were indicated over the Grand Canyon area. At 1230, the radiative temperature over 1G4 was about 38.34º C. 19 Based on this temperature, the density altitude at 2,000 feet (the approximate elevation of the initial point of impact) was calculated to be about 5,100 feet.

Upper air soundings at NWS facilities in Flagstaff, Arizona, and Desert Rock indicated winds of 10 knots or less below 10,000 feet and no significant turbulence or windshear at the time of the accident.

Airport and Route Information

The airport, 1G4, is located about 33 nm northwest of Peach Springs, Arizona, at an elevation of 4,825 feet msl. The nontowered airport has one asphalt runway, 17/35, which i