CHI97GA103 · Bell OH-58A
Bell OH-58A · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Sélibaby Airport (SEY) to Sélibaby Airport (SEY)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI97GA103
- 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 OH-58A
- Aircraft type
- Bell OH-58
- 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
- N132SP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sélibaby Airport (SEY)To Sélibaby Airport (SEY)
- 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
- 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 control in flight
- 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
- Aircraft weight and balance › Exceeded
- Ground personnel › Condition(s)/step(s) in improper sequence
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
State Police personnel were using the helicopter in connection with an Emergency Response Team (ERT) static drill. The helicopter was hovering about 1 foot above ground level as 4 ERT members (2 on each side) awaited hand signals from the lead member (first) to stabilize & then (second) to board the helicopter. According to the lead member, the first signal was given for each member to grab a strap & place 1 foot on a skid to stabilize (but not board) the helicopter; however, before the second signal was given, the helicopter began quickly moving to the right. The 2 ERT members on the left side were unable 'keep up' with the helicopter as it banked/climbed, and they fell to the ground. Both right side ERT members climbed aboard the helicopter when they were unable to remain clear of its path. The helicopter continued moving right & rolled into a steep bank. It gained about 10 feet of altitude before it entered a descent & crashed. Weight & balance calculations by Bell Helicopter showed that with the weight of 2 ERT members on the right skid (& no weight on the left), the helicopter's lateral center-of-gravity (CG) limit would have been exceeded by 4.3 inches. There was a flight step above & inboard from each skid. With weight of the 2 ERT members on the right step, the CG would have been exceeded by 3.2 inches). Bell reported the pilot would not have been able to maintain lateral control in either case.
Probable cause
improper action(s) by one or more of the emergency response team members, during a hovering/loading sequence, which resulted in the helicopter's lateral center-of-gravity (CG) limitations to be exceeded. A factor associated with the accident was: the pilot's inability to maintain lateral control of the helicopter, once the lateral CG limits had been exceeded.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI97GA103
- Event ID
- 20001208X07674
- Case number
- CHI97GA103
- 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: 1eb1bade323ca9a6b94e8fd4e929948e0d61e16965d91a29fd1a5a456cb197dd; retrieved 2026-09-21T12:10:56.533Z.