American Eurocopter Corp AS350B3 — registry & accident history
Compiled from FAA & NTSB records · as of Jul 24, 2026
There are 122 American Eurocopter Corp AS350B3 airframes on record (built 2010–2014), 90 currently registered. 11 have one or more NTSB accident records (11 records total, 3 with a fatal highest-injury classification). Data as of Jul 24, 2026.
Recent American Eurocopter Corp AS350B3 accidents
The pilot receiving instruction’s failure to properly recover the helicopter during an autorotative landing and the instructor pilot’s failure to intervene, which resulted in a hard landing.
An inflight collision with birds while on approach.
The pilot’s failure to maintain altitude from terrain and subsequent loss of helicopter control due to entanglement of the external load cable with the tail rotor.
The pilot's loss of helicopter control for undetermined reasons.
The ground recovery team member's failure to secure a rescue rope during the helicopter loading process in steep terrain, resulting in the rope fouling the helicopter's main rotor system.
Airbus Helicopters' dual-hydraulic AS350 B3e helicopter's (1) preflight hydraulic check, which depleted hydraulic pressure in the tail rotor hydraulic circuit, and (2) lack of salient alerting to the pilot that hydraulic pressure was not restored before takeoff. Such alerting might have cued the pilot to his failure to reset the yaw servo hydraulic switch to its correct position during the preflight hydraulic check, which resulted in a lack of hydraulic boost to the pedal controls, high pedal forces, and a subsequent loss of control after takeoff. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's failure to perform a hover check after liftoff, which would have alerted him to the pedal control anomaly at an altitude that could have allowed him to safely land the helicopter. Contributing to the severity of the injuries was the helicopter's fuel system, which was not crash resistant and facilitated a fuel-fed postcrash fire.
A loss of tail rotor effectiveness, which resulted in an uncontrolled rotation and descent into terrain. Contributing to the accident was a sudden shift in wind conditions and the helicopter's high power demand condition due to its load weight and operating altitude.
The pilot's loss of yaw control during takeoff due to the absence of hydraulic boost to the tail rotor pedals for reasons that could not be determined based on the available information. A finding in the accident was the lack of a caution indicator to alert the pilot of the lower hydraulic system configuration.