NYC92LA159 · Bell 47G-3B-1
Bell 47G-3B-1 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC92LA159
- 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 47G-3B-1
- Aircraft type
- Bell 47
- 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
- N2070P
- Operator
- Raymond D. Schuster · private individual
- 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 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
- 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 terrain/water
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER WAS BEING REPOSITIONED ONTO A TRAILER WHEN THE TAIL SWUNG TO THE LEFT AND IMPACTED ON A DIRT BANK LOCATED 25 FEET FROM THE TRAILER. THE PILOT WAS UNABLE TO CONTROL THE HELICOPTER AND ATTEMPTED TO MAKE A LANDING. THE RIGHT SKID TOUCHED DOWN ON THE TRAILER AND AS THE HELICOPTER SETTLED, IT ROLLED OVER ON ITS LEFT SIDE. THE PILOT REPORTED THE RIGHT TURN WAS UNCONTROLLABLE; HOWEVER, POST ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION BY THE FAA REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF MECHANICAL FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION. IN ADDITION THEY SAID, THE CONTINUITY OF THE CONTROL RODS AND CABLES TO THE TAIL ROTOR WAS UNABLE TO BE DETERMINED BECAUSE THE ENTIRE TAIL ASSEMBLY WAS SEPARATED FROM THE TAIL BOOM.
Probable cause
A YAW FOR UNKNOWN REASON(S) WHICH RESULTED IN THE TAIL ROTOR CONTACTING THE DIRT BANK AND A LOSS OF CONTROL. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE DECISION OF THE PILOT TO OPERATE IN CLOSE VICINITY TO THE DIRK BANK.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC92LA159
- Event ID
- 20001211X15506
- Case number
- NYC92LA159
- 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: d21b68f2fbada225bbbff385d281cefe3c23fdb10bba261ede7d1fc3cb79aa5b; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:46:26.846Z.