On March 30, 2013, at 2320 Alaska daylight time, a Eurocopter AS350 B3 helicopter, N911AA, impacted terrain while maneuvering during a search and rescue (SAR) flight near Talkeetna, Alaska. The airline transport pilot, an Alaska state trooper serving as a flight observer for the pilot, and a stranded snowmobiler who had requested rescue were killed, and the helicopter was destroyed by impact and postcrash fire. The helicopter was registered to and operated by the Alaska Department of Public Safety (DPS) as a public aircraft operations flight under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. Instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) prevailed in the area at the time of the accident. The flight originated at 2313 from a frozen pond near the snowmobiler’s rescue location and was destined for an off-airport location about 16 mi south.
After picking up the stranded, hypothermic snowmobiler at a remote rescue location in dark night conditions, the pilot, who was wearing night vision goggles (NVG) during the flight,encountered IMC in snow showers within a few minutes of departure. Although the pilot was highly experienced with SAR missions, he was flying a helicopterthat was not equipped or certified for flight under instrument flight rules (IFR). The pilot was not IFR current, had very little helicopter IFR experience, and had no recent inadvertentIMC training. Therefore, conducting the flight under IFR was not an option, and conducting the night flight under visual flight rules in the vicinity of forecast IFR conditions presented high risks. After the helicopter encountered IMC, the pilotbecame spatially disoriented and lost control of the helicopter.