MIA96LA210 · Bell 47G-4A
Bell 47G-4A · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA96LA210
- 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
- 1 · 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 47G-4A
- 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
- N9472G
- Operator
- Unknown
- 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
- Maneuvering · hover out of ground effect
- 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
- Antenna
- 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 › Clearance, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was hovering the helicopter above a radio tower as a worker was attaching a 50 foot line from the helicopter to an antenna on the tower. As the helicopter maneuvered above the tower, it settled, and the main rotor blades collided with the antenna and mounting pole. The main rotor separated from the helicopter, and the helicopter descended uncontrolled until ground impact. The worker's left ankle was broken when the helicopter hit the antenna. The winds were reported to be steady at about 15 mph with no gusts. Toxicology tests of specimens from the pilot showed 0.214 mcg/ml diphenhydramine in blood, 0.597 mcg/ml diphenhydramine in liver fluid, and diphenhydramine was detected in his urine. Diphenhydramine is an antihistamine with sedative effects. FAA records showed the helicopter operator held a Title 14 CFR Part 137 Aerial Application Certificate, but there was no record that the operator held a 14 CFR Part 133 External Load Certificate. Also, the logbook showed no record of an FAA Form 337, Major Repair and Alteration, for installation of the external load hook, which reportedly had been installed by the pilot about a week before the accident.
Probable cause
the pilot's misjudgment of clearance between the helicopter and the antenna. A factor relating to the accident was the pilot's use of a drug (medication) that had sedative effects.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA96LA210
- Event ID
- 20001208X06580
- Case number
- MIA96LA210
- 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: 0d95fadd74e4d9170397719c6cab00936c213d7b44398069b366e8bae9555863; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:13:50.972Z.