CHI95LA026 · Bell 206B3
Bell 206B3 · Accident: in flight collision with object en route
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI95LA026
- 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
- 0 · 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 206B3
- Aircraft type
- Bell 206
- 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
- N505KS
- Operator
- Roger A. Greenan · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- In flight collision with object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Wire, transmission
- 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 › Altitude, improper
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER STRUCK TRANSMISSION WIRES THAT RAN PERPENDICULAR TO ITS FLIGHT PATH, CRASHED AND THEN CAUGHT FIRE. WITNESSES REPORTED SEEING THE HELICOPTER FLYING LOW OVER A RECENTLY COMPLETED AREA OF ROAD CONSTRUCTION, CLIMB TO PASS OVER A 32' HIGH INTERSECTING BRIDGE, AND THEN DESCEND AGAIN. THE HELICOPTER STRUCK WIRES WHICH WERE APPROXIMATELY 30' AGL. THE PILOT STATED HE WAS GIVING NON-REVENUE SIGHT-SEEING RIDES TO CONSTRUCTION PERSONNEL WHO HAD BEEN WORKING ON THE HIGHWAY PROJECT. HE SAID HE HAD MADE ONE PREVIOUS ROUND TRIP PASS ALONG THE HIGHWAY AT APPROXIMATELY 75-200'. HE SAID HE MADE THE SECOND, ACCIDENT PASS LOWER TO SCOUT FOR LANDING SITES TO LOAD FUTURE PASSENGERS. HE INDICATED IN AN INTERVIEW THAT HE DID NOT SEE THE WIRES UNTIL JUST PRIOR TO IMPACT.
Probable cause
the pilot's improper altitude and inadequate visual lookout.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI95LA026
- Event ID
- 20001206X02418
- Case number
- CHI95LA026
- 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: d17538841c35b674e0bcfaf3631f68196128b8295b2548719065298cf7d4a918; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:33:42.167Z.