N818HJ

On July 17, 2000, about 1422 central daylight time, a Bell 47G-2A helicopter, N818HJ, registered to Precision Air Service, Inc., impacted with the ground near Covington, Tennessee. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time and no flight plan was filed for the 14 CFR Part 137 aerial application flight. The helicopter received substantial damage. The commercial-rated pilot reported no injuries. The flight departed from a local field about 10 minutes before the accident.

The pilot stated that he had hovered about 15 to 20 feet above a field, at an "indicated airspeed...[of] about 20 knots," that he was getting ready to spray, in an effort to determine if there were any obstacles. He heard a "bang" and the helicopter began to vibrate. The tail of the helicopter started coming around, so he elected to set the helicopter down on the ground. When he landed the main and tail rotor hit the ground.

According to the FAA inspector's report, "...the tailskid may have touched down at a point 123 feet from where the rotorcraft impacted the ground. At this point about 20 feet of cotton stalks had been pulled up or cut." The damaged tail rotor and yoke were shipped to Bell Helicopter for metallurgical inspection.

The damaged tail rotor and yoke were examined at Bell Helicopter's facilities, on August 24, 2000, under the supervision of the NTSB. According to the NTSB investigator, the metallurgical examination revealed, "...there was no evidence of fatigue cracking on the surface of the separated blade. The separation was an overload failure. The damage to both the separated blade and the complete blade was consistent with a tail rotor blade strike."

According to the FAA, and the pilot report the pilot had 15 flight hours in this make and model helicopter.