The 6,400-hour commercial pilot told rescuers it was “all my fault” that the Bell UH-1H Iroquois struck the ground on a dark-night flight shortly after takeoff from Raton, New Mexico, U.S., killing four of his five passengers and seriously injuring the fifth. The pilot died soon afterward, en route to a hospital.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said that the probable cause of the Jan. 17, 2018, crash, which destroyed the helicopter, also known as a Huey, was “the pilot’s failure to maintain adequate altitude above mountainous terrain during cruise flight in dark night conditions, which resulted in controlled flight into terrain [CFIT].”
The accident flight began around 1750 local time with departure from Raton Municipal Airport/Crews Field and was headed for a ranch in Folsom, New Mexico, about 30 mi (48 km) to the east. The NTSB’s final report on the accident said that the flight departed into dark night visual meteorological conditions with brig…
