MIA97LA168 · Bell 206L-1
Air Orlando Helicopter Bell 206L-1 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Air Orlando Heliport (2FD7) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA97LA168
- 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 206L-1
- 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
- N30SG
- Operator
- Air Orlando Helicopter
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Air Orlando Heliport (2FD7)To 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Distance, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Rotor RPM, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Shortly after takeoff during cruise flight at 60 knots while over trees no less than 600 feet agl, the engine experienced a total loss of power. The pilot initiated a descent for an autorotative landing and during the descent he reportedly pulled the caution circuit breaker. One of the passengers who is a helicopter rated pilot reported that he did not observe the pilot pull the caution circuit breaker. At 50 feet, he flared but the pilot rated passenger stated that he did not feel the initial collective pull. The pilot stated that he misjudged his landing area distance and while attempting to clear trees below, he intentionally bled the main rotor rpm. The helicopter landed hard in a clearing. Post crash examination of the cockpit revealed that the caution circuit breaker was pulled. Fuel quantity was sufficient to sustain engine operation and no contaminants were found. No discrepancies were noted with the fuel control or power turbine governor. The engine was removed from the helicopter and placed in a test cell where it was operated and found to produce less than full rated power. Disassembly of the engine revealed minor discrepancies. The fuel control and the power turbine governor were bench tested which revealed no mechanical failure or malfunction. No determination could be made as to the reason for the total loss of engine power.
Probable cause
The pilot misjudging the distance of the intended touchdown point resulting in his intentional decrease in the main rotor rpm to clear obstacles below. Contributing to the accident was the total loss of engine power due to undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA97LA168
- Event ID
- 20001208X07983
- Case number
- MIA97LA168
- 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: 1041d3b2fc93505f0a233885feaca461c99d6eb7826f6af4f463b47482741dd0; retrieved 2026-09-21T12:06:15.033Z.