FTW94FA158 · Bell 47G-2
Bell 47G-2 · Accident: abrupt maneuver en route
From Tulsa Riverside Airport (RVS) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW94FA158
- 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
- 1 · 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Bell 47G-2
- Aircraft type
- Bell 47
- 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
- N47GY
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tulsa Riverside Airport (RVS), Jenks, OKTo not recorded
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Abrupt maneuver
- 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 › Collective, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Cyclic, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WITNESSES HEARD A LOUD NOISE AND SAW AN OBJECT SEPARATE FROM THE SECOND OF TWO HELICOPTERS. THIS HELICOPTER THEN IMPACTED INVERTED IN THE BACK YARD OF A RESIDENCE. THE LEFT SYNCHRONIZED ELEVATOR AND END CAP WERE FOUND 240 FEET AWAY. AN INDENTATION ON THE LEADING EDGE OF ONE OF THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES MATCHED THAT OF THE END CAP. THE PILOT OF THE FIRST HELICOPTER SAID HE HAD WARNED THE SECOND PILOT OF A FLOCK OF BIRDS, AND THAT HE HAD TO BANK SHARPLY TO AVOID HITTING THEM. WHEN HE RECEIVED NO REPLY, HE TURNED AROUND BUT THE OTHER HELICOPTER WAS NOT IN SIGHT.
Probable cause
IN FLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL DUE TO THE PILOT'S IMPROPER USE OF THE CYCLIC AND COLLECTIVE CONTROLS WHEN HE MANEUVERED ABRUPTLY TO AVOID COLLIDING WITH A FLOCK OF BIRDS. FACTORS WERE THE BIRDS AND THE INFLIGHT SEPARATION OF THE LEFT SYNCHRONIZED ELEVATOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW94FA158
- Event ID
- 20001206X01271
- Case number
- FTW94FA158
- 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: 82a2812b9cb1e4de9a5c8672fbf48308bf85423be8ec751268d59e6351a355a5; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:09:45.262Z.