Accidents
NTSB Notes Rotor Spindle Crack in Enstrom Crash
The helicopter crashed during an instructional flight in 2015.

The fatal crash of a 1985 Enstrom 280FX in Erie, Colorado, during an instructional flight on Jan. 26, 2015, was the result of “an in-flight failure of the helicopter's number-two main rotor spindle due to undetected fatigue cracking, which resulted in an in-flight break up (of the main rotor system)," according to the NTSB. Contributing to the failure were "nonconforming thread root radius of the spindle and the manufacturer's failure to include a bending moment within the spindle threads when performing the fatigue analysis during initial design of the spindle.”