MIA96LA197 · Bell 47D1G
Bell 47D1G · Accident: loss of engine power while maneuvering
From 3X1 · Delray Beach, FL to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA96LA197
- 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 47D1G
- 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
- N1200Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 3X1 · Delray Beach, FLTo 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 › Carburetor heat, not selected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While orbiting over a residential area about 150-200 feet above ground level, during an aerial photography flight, the engine experienced a loss of power. The pilot initiated an emergency descent for an autorotative landing to a road but the main rotor blades collided with trees resulting in a hard landing. The pilot stated that he did not apply carburetor heat or check the magnetos following the loss of engine power. Examination of the helicopter revealed sufficient fuel quantity to sustain engine operation; no contaminants were found. Examination of the engine revealed no evidence of preimpact failure or malfunction. Review of a carburetor icing probability chart revealed conditions were favorable for light icing at cruise or descent power.
Probable cause
Failure of the pilot to apply carburetor heat following a loss of engine power due to inadequate altitude over a populated area. Contributing to the accident was the encounter with conditions favorable for carburetor icing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA96LA197
- Event ID
- 20001208X06327
- Case number
- MIA96LA197
- 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: 013d1538cd1703858f1937751aad2bfd0af1e41da1a8fc8a777f837202903513; retrieved 2026-09-22T21:41:58.094Z.