SEA93LA207 · Bell UH-1B
Clearwater Management Bell UH-1B · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA93LA207
- 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 UH-1B
- Aircraft type
- Bell UH-1
- 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
- N3979C
- Operator
- Clearwater Management
- 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 133: Rotorcraft Ext. Load
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Rotor drive system, tail rotor gearbox(90 deg) › Separation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE MANEUVERING NEAR A REFUELING SITE IN HILLY/MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN, THE 90 DEGREE GEARBOX SEPARATED FROM THE AIRCRAFT. THE PILOT THEN ATTEMPTED A RUN-ON FORCED LANDING ON A NEARBY LOGGING ROAD. DURING THE FLARE, THE AIRCRAFT LANDED HARD, RESULTING IN A COLLAPSE OF THE SKIDS, AND SEPARATION OF THE REMAINING PORTION OF THE TAIL BOOM. METALLURGICAL ANALYSIS REVEALED THAT ALL SIX GEARBOX ATTACH BOLTS HAD EXPERIENCED REVERSE-BENDING FATIGUE FAILURE. THE OPERATOR RECORDS INDICATED THAT THIS WAS A NEW SURPLUS PART WHICH HAD 136 HOURS OF OPERATION SINCE NEW. HISTORICAL RECORDS CONFIRMING THE UNIT'S TOTAL TIME SINCE BEING SHIPPED TO THE PHILIPPINES AS A NEW SURPLUS PART IN 1981 COULD NOT BE LOCATED.
Probable cause
SEPARATION OF THE 90 DEGREE GEARBOX AFTER FATIGUE FAILURE OF THE GEARBOX ATTACH BOLTS. FACTORS INCLUDE HILLY/MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA93LA207
- Event ID
- 20001211X13488
- Case number
- SEA93LA207
- 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: 2a3a56eff4e3326408b25cf63bbfa099b2c5342a513a211fcab99912dbb89a0f; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:35:58.964Z.