The Eurocopter1 AS350 B2 had just lifted off from a Seattle rooftop helipad for a repositioning flight when it yawed left, climbed slightly and then spun to the ground and crashed into a city street, killing the pilot and a television cameraman in the passenger seat.
A person on the ground received serious injuries when the helicopter — used by a Seattle television station in electronic news gathering — struck the automobile in which he was sitting and exploded in flames. The helicopter was destroyed.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in its final report that the probable cause of the March 18, 2014, accident was a loss of control “due to a loss of hydraulic boost to the tail rotor pedal controls at takeoff, followed by a loss of hydraulic boost to the main rotor controls after takeoff.”
Fire damage to the hydraulic system, as well as the absence of a flight recorder, left accident investigators unable to determine a cause of t…
