Posted on 07/09/2025 5:41:07 AM PDT by Red Badger
In Brief:
🚁 A tour helicopter crashed at Destin Executive Airport last month due to a loose bolt, according to a new NTSB report.
🧰 Investigators found other bolts were only hand-tight, and the helicopter suffered major damage, though all passengers survived.
🕵️ While the operator wasn’t named, officials confirmed Timberview Helicopters is the only tour provider based at the airport.
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The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its report on the crash that occurred at Destin Executive Airport involving a tour helicopter last month.
In the report, the investigator stated that a bolt from the cyclic servo had backed out and fallen off of the connecting rod. The bolt was located inside the wreckage. Other bolts were found to be only hand-tight.
Higgins Leasing Inc., a company from The Woodlands, Texas, leased the helicopter.
The NTSB pointed out that the crash inflicted substantial damage on the Robinson R 66 turbine helicopter, but that none of the three passengers were killed. The NTSB preliminary accident report noted two people had minor injuries and one escaped unharmed.
“The pilot stated that the accident flight was the fourth air tour flight of the day. After takeoff, during the transition to flight about 15 feet above the ground, he heard a pop and the helicopter made a heart-shaped nose dive into the ground. He applied the left stick, but nothing happened.” The report continues, “the helicopter impacted the ground on its right side and shattered the windshield. The main rotor blades fractured into pieces. The tail rotor and tail boom fractured off the helicopter, and we’re located about 25 feet behind the main wreckage.”
Timberview Helicopters and Their Safety Record
None of the reports stated what company operated the helicopter. We reached out to the Okaloosa Board of County Commissioners, which operates Destin Executive Airport, about the helicopter tour operators at the airport. They say the only operator working out of Destin Executive Airport is Timberview Helicopters.
Timberview Helicopters is a helicopter tour operator that flies helicopters in Florida and Texas, according to its website.
We called Timberview Helicopters’ phone number and spoke to an unidentified representative, who confirmed that the crash involved one of their helicopters last month.
She informed us that she would contact the chief pilot of the organization and arrange for someone to get in touch with us regarding the incident. When they do so, we will update the story here with their comments about the crash.
Reports dating back ten years show several incidents in Florida involving the company. The NTSB investigated crashes in 2012, 2015, and 2019. None of these accidents resulted in fatalities, though some of them had injuries.
According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the current fatality rate for helicopter rides is low, at around 0.69 fatalities per 100,000 flight hours, which is lower than the Bureau’s fatality rate in 2015 for general aviation, 1.8 per 100,000 flight hours.
DON’T EVER GET ON ONE OF THESE ‘TOUR’ HELICOPTERS...................
“In the report, the investigator stated that a bolt from the cyclic servo had backed out and fallen off of the connecting rod. The bolt was located inside the wreckage. Other bolts were found to be only hand-tight.”
Have to be PRETTY DUMB to take a helicopter ride without checking the torque of the Cyclic Servo.
(how the Libertarians see it)
That’s nuts. Thanks for the tip.
Yeah, LOOSE NUTS!.................
Pinochet Airways?
Hand tightened! Ludicrous!
Company needs to provide mechanics with wrenches and loctite.
At least his nuts weren’t loose................
Aviation Ping!......................
DEI. All part of that dumb ass racist phrase, “You can be whatever you want to be.” No you can’t. You’ve got “doctors” south of the border who specialize in making women’s butts so huge they look like they made 10 round trips across the Darien Gap to America and ate everything they could find. Real four and five hundred pounders.
I was just doing touristy things in Destin at the end of June, glad I didn’t think to take the chopper tour.
If the pilot doesn't strangle them first.
I have always admired what helicopters and their crews can do, but have always been distrustful of them to a degree due to the complicated nature of the machinery that accomplishes what appears to be “magic”.
When I was in the USN, I recall watching a grease-covered mechanic working on the rotor of an SH3 Sea King on the flight deck. I mentioned to him that I always felt uneasy looking at all those linkages, bolts, and grease while thinking there were too many moving parts.
He agreed, and pointing at something described it as the “Jesus Nut”.
I said why is it called the “Jesus Nut” and he said something like “If any of these fail, that is bad, but if the “Jesus Nut” fails...you are going to meet Jesus!”
He was 110% correct....................
Air Force pilots ate officers. Army helicopter pilots are enlisted.
No Loctite, Safety Wire is the rule.
If you’re tightening that nut by hand, I recall reading that you need two people to do it.
Bolts on the cyclic were HAND TIGHT and the chopper made FOUR FLIGHTS that day?
Not likely.
Something as critical as flight control components are not only torqued but most likely safety wired. And when such components are worked on a quality control inspector of sorts needs to sign off on it. This tells me of extreme negligence or sabotage.
Or so that’s the way it was in the Army when I was around helicopters.
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