SEA96TA213 · Bell 206B-3
U.S. Forest Service Bell 206B-3 · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From ST. REGIS, MT to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA96TA213
- 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
- Government
- 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 206B-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
- N47MA
- Operator
- U.S. Forest Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From ST. REGIS, MTTo 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
- Public Aircraft
- 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
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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 › Clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter sustained substantial damage when it struck wires during a fire suppression activity for the U.S. Forest Service. The pilot reported that his water bucket malfunctioned on his seventh load, while performing fire suppression, and he was unable to drop its water. On his way back to the helibase, he diverted from a direct return. He reported that he descended and circled with the intention of putting his bucket down on an abandoned railroad grade to tip it over and empty it. An eyewitness advised that the pilot appeared to be descending and circling to fill his bucket in a pond just across the railroad grade. About 80 feet above the pond, the helicopter struck a powerline with the main rotor blades, severing three conductors of a main distribution line. About 80 feet further west along the powerline, the main rotor blades severed the messenger wire in two places, about 12 feet apart. The helicopter remained controllable and the pilot continued a right turn, descending to a landing on the railroad grade.
Probable cause
failure of the pilot to maintain clearance from electrical transmission lines. The proximity of transmission lines was a related factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA96TA213
- Event ID
- 20001208X06823
- Case number
- SEA96TA213
- 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: eeffad9825b0940b039f93490a2f621324abfab6463906a8634ab543ed269049; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:21:50.913Z.