Safety Agency Cites Lax Inspections and Federal Oversight in Deadly Helicopter Crash
The National Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesday that inadequate inspections and lax federal oversight contributed to a 2022 helicopter crash that killed six people in Logan County, W.Va.
The “Huey” helicopter crashed in June 2022, after hitting power lines during a forced landing after the aircraft lost power. Investigators found that an engine component failure caused the power loss.
The N.T.S.B. said that the helicopter’s operator, Marpat Aviation, “would likely have discovered the fatigue cracks and other engine damage that led to the failure of the engine component had it done more comprehensive inspections.”
Marpat Aviation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The N.T.S.B. also faulted the Federal Aviation Administration for providing “basically no oversight” of Marpat Aviation. The N.T.S.B. said the F.A.A. issued a special airworthiness certification for the helicopter under the “experimental exhibition” category in December 2014. But the F.A.A. “lacked guidance for inspectors to perform routine surveillance of operators with experimental airworthiness certificates.”
The N.T.S.B. said that while the F.A.A. inspection requirements for former military aircraft were revised in 2015, the more thorough standards did not apply in this case because the helicopter’s most recent airworthiness certificate was issued earlier.
Marpat Aviation was hosting its annual “Huey Reunion” at Logan County Airport, where members of the public could pay to fly in the former military helicopter with a “safety pilot” or take a ride for a smaller fee. The crash occurred during the last scheduled flight of the day on the event’s second day, killing all six on board.
The N.T.S.B. made a series of recommendations in the wake of the crash. Among them is that other aircraft in the experimental exhibition category be maintained with the most recent iteration of the inspection standards, the latest of which is dated July 2017.
“The F.A.A. takes N.T.S.B. recommendations very seriously and will provide a response to the six new recommendations within an appropriate time frame,” an F.A.A. spokesperson said in a statement.
The N.T.S.B. said Marpat Aviation had previously conducted more thorough inspections of the helicopter while it was under a restricted-category airworthiness certificate, with the last detailed check between October 2013 and December 2014.
The agency said that while the operator did not have to maintain those stringent standards after switching to an experimental category certificate, “Marpat Aviation’s decision not to use more rigorous inspection standards when the helicopter was operated under an experimental category certificate was also a factor that led to the accident.”