FTW95LA032 · Bell 206L-3
Bell 206L-3 · Accident: loss of engine power while maneuvering
From Key Field / Meridian Regional Airport (MEI) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW95LA032
- 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 206L-3
- 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
- N206SF
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Key Field / Meridian Regional Airport (MEI), Meridian, MSTo 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Rotorcraft flight controls, improper use of
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Ruston, LA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THIS WAS THE THIRD PRACTICE AUTOROTATION WITH POWER RECOVERY INITIATED AT 1,000 FT ABOVE THE GROUND. AT 100 FT, AND WITH AN AIRSPEED OF 70 KTS, THE FLARE WAS STARTED. THE PILOT DID NOT NOTICE A TORQUE CHANGE OR YAW, AND LATER STATED HE TOOK THIS AS EVIDENCE 'THAT THE ENGINE HAD QUIT.' TOUCHDOWN WAS MADE AT A HIGHER THAN DESIRED FORWARD SPEED. ONE BLADE CONTACTED THE RIGHT VERTICAL STABILIZER, AND THE TAIL BOOM COLLAPSED TO THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE HELICOPTER. THE ENGINE WAS LATER EXAMINED, AND ALL CHECKS INDICATED THAT THE ENGINE WAS FUNCTIONING NORMAL.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER HANDLING OF THE HELICOPTER AFTER AN APPARENT LOSS OF POWER DURING A PRACTICE AUTOROTATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW95LA032
- Event ID
- 20001206X02452
- Case number
- FTW95LA032
- 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: f7e50b7d37a19546c809e5064f9bf5af70dd21adf3c19e15baf8811c2a847d34; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:29:56.185Z.