105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14347538

WORK RULES,INEXPERIENCE,HELICOPTER,POOR VISIBILITY

Event
WORK RULES,INEXPERIENCE,HELICOPTER,POOR VISIBILITY
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14347538
Report ID
418600

Event description

Pilot and pilot trainee killed in helicopter crash

Investigation abstract

At approximately 8:30 p.m., Employees #1 and #2, an instructor pilot and pilot t ending rapidly. Chalk 3 then ran into a cloud and proceeded to climb on his assi gned heading, breaking out at 1,000 ft. He then saw the field and landed, as did Chalk 1, 4, and 5. Chalk 2 had crashed at approximately 8:45 p.m., killing Empl oyees #1 and #2. rainee, were in an OH-58A helicopter (tail number 70-15502), conducting night vi sion goggle training, when they were recalled to Hanchey Army Heliport due to de teriorating weather. The helicopter joined four other aircraft at Huntstage fiel d for special visual flight rules to Hanchey. The helicopter was Chalk 2 in the trail formation. Chalk 3 received clearance from Hanchey tower for the flight an d briefed the flight. The flight proceeded to Hanchey at 700 ft. Chalk 3 stated that he had the field in sight, and Chalk 1 and 2 also reported seeing the field . Chalk 3 stated that as he turned south toward the field, he noted Chalk 2 desc

Victims (2)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 37 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    5
    Source
    1
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    5
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Fatality Age 28 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    5
    Source
    1
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    5
    Task assigned
    1

Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.