MD 500 / Hughes 369

The MD 500 is the helicopter that hovers beside transmission towers with a lineman on its skid, and its record shows the cost of that work. Up to 28 October 2026, 38 fatal accidents in the United States since 2008 count toward its score, with 56 deaths. At least 19 happened on power line jobs. Only one was a passenger flight.

What is the MD 500, and who flies it?

Hughes built the OH-6A Cayuse for the US Army (first flight 1963) and sold the civil version as the Hughes 500 from 1967. Hughes, then McDonnell Douglas (from 1984) and MD Helicopters, built the later 500D, 500E, 530F and 530FF; about 4,700 have been built in all. It is small, fast and agile, with one Allison (now Rolls-Royce) 250 turbine and, on the later models, a five-blade main rotor. The 530F has a more powerful engine for hot, high work. The FAA register held about 560 in 2026.

In our records MD 500s build, patrol and repair power lines, trim trees with hanging saws, fly for police, capture deer with nets, carry tourists on Kauai and train military pilots under contract. The NOTAR MD 520N and 600N, without a tail rotor, are separate types.

How the score is built

We count fatal accidents in the United States since 2008, from the NTSB database, against about 2.8 million US flights. The flights come from the FAA aircraft register and the FAA General Aviation survey, split between types by how much each type flies, mostly from airframe hours in NTSB accident records and partly from hours per aircraft seen by ADS-B receivers (OpenSky, 2019 to 2022), then matched to the FAA's own hours for the model (FAA Table MM.1, 2008 to 2021). Deaths count when the person was carried by the helicopter, inside or on a long line or skid; people on the ground do not count. With 38 accidents, confidence is medium, and the score leans mainly on the type's own record.

Per flight, the MD 500 sits second to last among the helicopters we rank, ahead of only the Robinson R66, and the likely ranges of the two overlap. We estimate roughly three times the risk of the Bell 206, the Bell 407 and the H125, and a little over twice that of the Robinson R22. All helicopters carry far more risk per flight than an airline flight. See our method and the helicopter ranking.

A fish-spotting OH-6A that the NTSB places in the Pacific in 2010 counts; a Hughes 369 lost off Majuro in 2018, with no US state or route, does not.

Why so many power line accidents?

Of the 38, 34 were work, public-use and private flights, 2 training, 1 positioning and 1 passenger flight. Flight into terrain or obstacles is the largest group (15), then loss of control (10). In 11 the pilot was alone; 11 have no established cause.

Line work leaves almost no margin. The rotor or the tail struck towers and poles near Paducah, Texas, in 2013 and near McDougal, Arkansas, in 2018. Patrol pilots hit crossing wires, as near Corning, New York, on 15 November 2012, when the pilot was on his second day of the job. At least nine of the dead were linemen or crew outside the cabin, on a skid or a line below. Near Ackerly, Texas, on 5 August 2013, and near Sulphur, Louisiana, on 7 November 2017, a long line rubbed on a shield wire and parted; two linemen fell each time, and the helicopter landed undamaged.

Mechanical causes are less common: at least five of the 38 had a mechanical or maintenance cause. Near Childress, Texas, on 27 November 2012, a wrongly reading fuel gauge let a 369D run dry in a hover. Near Talking Rock, Georgia, on 5 March 2019, a fatigue-cracked overrunning clutch cut drive to the rotor during tree trimming.

Police, private and tour flights

Two police flights ended at night. An Atlanta OH-6A caught wires on a power pole during a search for a missing child on 3 November 2012, and both crew died; a Houston 369E spun and fell over the city on 2 May 2020, killing the tactical flight officer, for reasons the NTSB could not find. Private owners hit wires at low height near Loxahatchee, Florida, in 2022 and a highline rig near Superior, Arizona, on 2 January 2026, where four died. The one passenger flight was the Airborne Aviation tour off Haena, Kauai, on 26 March 2026: three passengers died, and no cause is published yet.

Checks for crews and passengers

• Line crews: ask how the operator plans each job against wire and tower charts, how long lines and their hardware are inspected, and how much line work the pilot has done.
• On a tour, ask whether the operator holds a Part 135 certificate, and look up the N-number in the NTSB CAROL database.
• Over water, learn how your belt and door open before take-off, and wear the life vest.

How to tell if you are on one

Flight trackers show H500. Look for the egg-shaped cabin, the short tail with a small T-tail on later models, and a five-blade rotor on the 500D, 500E and 530F.