Industrial Helicopters Bell 206B3 accident
Bell 206B3 · Accident: in flight collision with object during landing
From BLOCK 672A, GM (no airport) to No airport
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW92FA189
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 206B3
- 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
- N2072B
- Operator
- Industrial Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From BLOCK 672A, GM (no airport)To No airport
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- 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 › Flare, excessive
- Pilot in command › Proper glidepath, not maintained
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
A HELICOPTER WAS EXECUTING AN APPROACH TO A PLATFORM IN THE GULF OF MEXICO TO PICK UP TWO PASSENGERS. A NOSE HIGH FLARE WAS OBSERVED BY THE AWAITING PASSENGERS AND THE TAIL ROTOR BLADES STRUCK THE FENCE GUARD AROUND THE HELIDECK. CONTROL WAS LOST AS THE TAIL ROTOR ASSEMBLY AND GEAR BOX SEPARATED FROM THE TAILBOOM. THE HELICOPTER SPUN OFF THE HELIDECK FALLING TO THE OCEAN BELOW.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN THE PROPER GLIDEPATH DURING THE APPROACH WHICH LED TO AN EXCESSIVE NOSE HIGH ATTITUDE DURING THE LANDING FLARE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW92FA189
- Event ID
- 20001211X15148
- Case number
- FTW92FA189
- 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: 1ba5061d9b2417b488734b51e0f3dbe767f4f98eaf117f4ef7ee47df11a2caf8; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:57:24.042Z.