A new federal report raises two issues of pilot error in a helicopter’s forced landing in Whitefield last year.

The pilot, identified in National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) documents as Michael J. Conley of Bridgewater, New Hampshire, was hurt when the helicopter crashed into trees on the edge of Kathleen Woodbury’s East River Road property on May 30, 2014.

The probable cause report released on the NTSB’s website on May 14 attributes the accident to “a loss of engine power due to fuel starvation.”

According to the report and a narrative released with it, the pilot kept flying the helicopter after a master caution light came on, and failed to make sure that other caution lights were set right before takeoff from a Bar Harbor airport. An examination later revealed that those lights were set to dim, making them either hard to read or impossible to read in the daylight, the report states.

Conley reported seeing the master caution light, according to the report. When that happens and a pilot doesn’t see the corresponding other lights, emergency procedures call for a landing as soon as possible, the report continues.

“Instead, (Conley) continued flight as the master caution warning light illuminated three more times over the next 15 minutes. The engine then experienced a total loss of power,” it states.

The forced landing substantially damaged the helicopter, owned by Maine Helicopters in Whitefield, and gave Conley minor injuries; he was wearing a seat belt and shoulder harness, and was able exit out the right-front pilot's door, according to NTSB documents.

Although the probable cause report states that the engine was starved of fuel, investigators recovered 10 to 11 gallons of fuel from the helicopter; about 1.3 gallons was unusable, according to NTSB documents.

“Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s failure to land as soon as possible when the master caution warning light first (came on) as prescribed and his failure to ensure the proper setting of the (other caution) lights before the flight,” the new report concludes.

NTSB documents list the weather at the accident scene as 50 F and clear, with winds gusting to 17 knots. There was no turbulence, the documents state.

According to the same documents, Conley, 50 at the time, had a total of 3,723 hours' flight experience including 1,530 hours as pilot-in-command; 1,475 hours of his flight time was on the make and model of helicopter the accident involved, with 949 of those hours as pilot-in-command.

According to Conley's statement that the NTSB published, he took off from Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport at about 1:30 p.m. on May 30, 2014. Conley states that the flight was uneventful until the master caution light flashed. “Could not decipher what it was. A short time after that, the engine quit, and (the master caution light) stayed illuminated.”

Conley states in the narrative that he is not sure on a sequence. “It happened very quickly. The aircraft was over trees about a mile from (the) intended landing .... It was evident I was going into the trees. I picked the shortest trees I could find with the allotted time.”

The NTSB investigates aviation and other transportation accidents; it can make safety recommendations, but has no enforcement or regulatory power, the agency’s website states.

Conley no longer works for Maine Helicopters, owner Greg Farris said. The helicopter was taken out of service and taken apart; parts of it may be able to be reused but it will not be rebuilt, Farris said.

The findings in the probable cause report did not surprise him, Farris said. The results of the company’s internal investigation right after the accident also pointed to pilot error, he said.

In explaining how a helicopter’s engine can be fuel-starved when the aircraft still has fuel, Farris said that if the aircraft banks hard instead of remaining level, air can get into the fuel intake, depriving the engine of fuel and causing it to stall.

Besides the loss of the helicopter from the fleet, the accident was disappointing because Maine Helicopters puts an emphasis on safety, Farris said. Clients have even complained when a pilot wouldn’t make a trip due to winds or other conditions, he said.

“We’re really, really cautious in everything we do,” Farris said. “I was not happy about (the accident).”

Attempts to reach Conley were not immediately successful.