CHI95IA189 · Bell 222UT
Bell 222UT · Incident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Mercy Hospital Medical Center Private Heliport (IA82) to Cass County Memorial Hospital Heliport (IA67)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI95IA189
- 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
- Incident
- 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 222UT
- Aircraft type
- Bell 222
- 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
- N274SM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mercy Hospital Medical Center Private Heliport (IA82), IATo Cass County Memorial Hospital Heliport (IA67)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Induction air ducting › Delamination
- Induction air ducting › Failure
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Des Moines, IA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that approximately one minute after takeoff, the emergency medical service helicopter experienced a left yaw. The nurse and paramedic, who were seated in the back, reported hearing a 'pop.' The number 1 engine-out indicator light illuminated, the pilot reduced the throttle to flight idle, and he made a turn toward the airport to land. The pilot stated that the number 1 engine-fire indicator light illuminated and he armed and discharged the fire extinguisher bottle. An emergency landing was made and the pilot and passengers were able to evacuate without further incident. Postaccident examination revealed that the engine air inlet duct on the left engine had collapsed internally due to delamination. A service bulletin addressing this issue had been complied with.
Probable cause
delamination of the left engine air inlet duct.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI95IA189
- Event ID
- 20001207X03648
- Case number
- CHI95IA189
- 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: 4c85ae2957e7b7d6fabb12de7e89b639b13044fa5800494e7e34febcaf23beaf; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:47:16.981Z.