BFO94FA071 · Bell 412/SP
Bell 412/SP · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From WINSTON SALEM, NC to Mercer County Airport (BLF)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO94FA071
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 4 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Bell 412/SP
- Aircraft type
- Bell 412
- Category
- Helicopter
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N70AM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From WINSTON SALEM, NCTo Mercer County Airport (BLF), WV
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Approach · IFR final approach
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLT HAD DEPARTED THE NORTH CAROLINA BAPTIST HOSPITAL IN WINSTON SALEM. IT ARRIVED FROM THE NE AND WAS VECTORED FOR THE ILS RWY 23 APCH. THE LAST VECTOR WAS 240 DEG, WHICH WAS INADEQUATE TO INTERCEPT THE LCLZ. THE PLT WAS CLEARED FOR AND INSTRUCTED TO MAINTAIN 7000 FT UNTIL ESTABLISHED ON THE APCH. RECORDED RADAR DATA SHOWS THE FLIGHT DID NOT INTERCEPT THE LCLZ BUT PARALLELED ON A SW COURSE, A MILE LEFT OF THE LCLZ, WHILE MAINTAINING 7000 FT. THE FLT CONTINUED THIS COURSE UNTIL ABEAM OF THE RWY DEPARTURE END, BEGAN TO DESCEND, TURNED NW, CROSSED THE EXTENDED RWY CENTLERLINE, AND THEN PROCEEDED OUTBOUND FROM THE RWY ON APRX 230 DEG COURSE UNTIL THE LAST RECORDED POSITION ABOUT 5 MI SW OF THE ARPT AT 4100 FT ALTITUDE. THE ACCIDENT SITE WAS ON A MOUNTAIN ABOUT 7.5 MI SW OF THE ARPT AT 3400 FT MSL. A WITNESS REPORTED THAT BEFORE HE HEARD THE CRASH HE COULD NOT SEE THE ACFT BECAUSE THE MOUNTAIN WAS OBSCURED BY FOG. BOTH NAV RADIOS WERE SET TO THE LCLZ FREQ. THE PUBLISHED IAP SHOWS A GLIDESLOPE INTERCEPT ALT OF 5000 FT, AND THE DH WAS 3157 FT. ACFT WAS OPERATED BY AIR METHODS CORPORATION.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO INTERCEPT THE FINAL APPROACH COURSE, AND HIS IMPROPER EXECUTION OF THE INSTRUMENT APPROACH PROCEDURE. FACTORS WHICH CONTRIBUTED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE WEATHER CONDITIONS, AND THE FAILURE OF THE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER TO ADEQUATELY VECTOR THE FLIGHTCREW TO INTERCEPT THE FINAL APPROACH COURSE AT THE APPROACH GATE, AS SPECIFIED IN THE ATC HANDBOOK.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO94FA071
- Event ID
- 20001206X01039
- Case number
- BFO94FA071
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 5165a1fc16c2fa147886b64f586709a084bf32cea2748d6940d8a87da5fa52d9; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:11:06.566Z.