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- March 1, 2011: At the Tooele airport, two Upper Limit employees were doing "long-line" training, which involves placing a load over a specific location. The Bell 206B suddenly yawed to the right and plunged to the ground. The pilot managed to slow the descent just before impact, but the crash was hard enough to break the tail rotor.
- February 2009: A 21-year-old instructor was flying members of her family in an Upper Limit R44 helicopter up a canyon in the Francis Peak area near Bountiful. While trying to reverse course downhill after making a low pass over a ridge, she crashed and rolled the aircraft, severing the tail boom. The NTSB said the pilot made an "improper decision to fly at low altitude while maneuvering in mountainous terrain" and inadvertently exceeded the helicopter's climb capacity.
- May 2008: At the former Salt Lake City Municipal 2 Airport (now South Valley Regional Airport), a 32-year-old flight instructor prematurely started a maneuver, leading a student to improperly press an anti-torque pedal. The R22 — the same one flown in Wednesday's accident — crashed, with the NTSB noting "inadequate supervision" and "delayed remedial action" by the instructor.
- June 2007: a 21-year-old flight instructor on a cross-country training flight with a student crashed in Park City while demonstrating an emergency maneuver, bending an R22's support tube and fuselage. The NTSB noted a "failure to maintain rotor RPM."
- April 2006: A 40-year-old instructor and student landed at the Tooele airport, then took off again to resume their lesson. The Robinson R22 helicopter got no more than 70 feet in the air before crashing back to the ground. The NTSB noted a "failure to maintain control" and gusty winds.
WEST JORDAN — A student's error caused a helicopter crash April 6 at South Valley Regional Airport, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
The student pulled a "mixture control" knob, cutting power to the engine. The student meant to apply carburetor heat, an adjacent control.
The crash was the seventh in the last six years for Upper Limit Aviation, a Salt Lake City flight school whose safety record has come under fire from former employees.
According to the report, the student and an instructor were returning to the airport at the tail end of a lesson shortly after noon when the student pulled a "mixture control" knob, cutting power to the engine. The student meant to apply carburetor heat, an adjacent control, the report states.
The instructor started an emergency landing from 300 feet above the ground, but "his selected landing site turned out to be a school yard with children present." The report does not identify the school.
The helicopter crashed nearby, leaving it with substantial damage and both passengers with minor injuries.
Sean Reid, the school's co-owner and chief flight instructor, praised the instructor for preventing any fatalities, saying the landing could have been smooth if not for the last-minute diversion away from the school.
Typically, Reid said, a student must identify the correct control and get verbal confirmation from the instructor before activating it. But in this case, the student removed a guard from the mixture control and pulled it without warning, he said.
"The student had been briefed (on proper procedures)," Reid said. "He didn't have his head in the game."
The student had been briefed (on proper procedures). He didn't have his head in the game.
–Sean Reid, Upper Limit
In an interview, Upper Limit's former chief pilot, Karl Cotton, said he believes the school's instructors — usually recent graduates without a great deal of experience — are not being properly trained. The instructor in the April 6 accident had 433 hours of flight time in all aircraft, a little more than double the time needed to earn a certificate.
Cotton said that when he worked for the company from 2007 to 2010, he would train new instructors for three or four days.
"That's the kind of stuff they're just not getting," he said. Cotton said Reid has just returned from a 90-day firefighting contract in North Carolina.
Reid responded that he had been gone for 60 days, not 90 days, that he is at Upper Limit between 250 and 300 days a year, and that his absence does not affect safety because the company employs several other experienced pilots. He said the school cut ties with Cotton over pay and scheduling issues.
A former Upper Limit maintenance director, Ivan Elmy, previously told the Deseret News that Reid asked him to alter evidence of a 2005 crash during a personal flight in Wyoming, a claim the company has denied.
Email:pkoepp@ksl.com
