SEA95LA085 · Bell 206L-1
Bell 206L-1 · Accident: loss of engine power while maneuvering
From an unrecorded airport to Richfield Municipal Airport (RIF)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA95LA085
- 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-1
- 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
- N206AH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Richfield Municipal Airport (RIF), UT
- 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
- Turboshaft engine › Ice ingestion
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT THE HELICOPTER HAD BEEN STRANDED ON TOP OF A HILL FOR SEVERAL DAYS DUE TO ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS AND SNOW FALL. BEFORE LEAVING THE HELICOPTER ON THE HILL, THE PILOT STATED THAT HE USED JACKETS AND CUSHIONS TO ATTEMPT TO COVER THE ENGINE INLETS, AS PROTECTIVE COVERINGS WERE NOT AVAILABLE. WHEN THE HELICOPTER WAS RETRIEVED, SNOW HAD ACCUMULATED IN THE INLETS. AFTER THE AIRFRAME AND ENGINE INLETS HAD BEEN CLEANED OF THE SNOW AND ICE BUILD UP, THE ENGINE WAS STARTED AND WARMED BEFORE TAKEOFF. SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, THE ENGINE LOST POWER AND THE PILOT INITIATED AN AUTOROTATION TO SLIGHTLY SLOPING TERRAIN. THE HELICOPTER LANDED HARD. DURING ENGINE INSPECTION, IT WAS FOUND THAT AT LEAST SIX COMPRESSOR BLADES WERE BENT. NO INSPECTION WINDOWS WERE INSTALLED IN THE COWLING, WHICH WOULD HAVE ALLOWED THE PILOT TO VIEW THE PLENUM CHAMBER FOR ICE OR SNOW. POST ACCIDENT INSPECTION OF THE ENGINE DID NOT REVEAL EVIDENCE OF A MECHANICAL FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION.
Probable cause
ICE INGESTION. FACTORS TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: AIRCRAFT PROTECTIVE COVERINGS WERE UNAVAILABLE, INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT INSPECTION, AND UNEVEN TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA95LA085
- Event ID
- 20001207X03387
- Case number
- SEA95LA085
- 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: 9eee861c88253c48800ede754887aa2880020e047958385674f8fe13e048709b; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:01:05.549Z.