The pilot of a Genesis Helicopters Bell 206B felt a vibration and a “grinding sensation,” saw the low rotor RPM warning light illuminate and was preparing to ditch when the main rotor stalled and the helicopter plunged into the water and sank in Pearl Harbor, 20 ft from the shore of the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
A rear-seat passenger who had been trapped in his seat drowned, the pilot and two passengers were seriously injured, and the remaining passenger received minor injuries in the Feb. 18, 2016, accident, which the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) attributed to “the in-flight failure of the engine-to-transmission drive shaft due to improper maintenance, which resulted in low main rotor rpm and a subsequent hard landing to water.”
The pilot told accident investigators that on the day of the accident, before what was to be the first tour flight since replacement of the helicopter’s tail rotor drive shaft, he and the company mechanic’s assistant conduc…
