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FTW91LA048 · Bell 206B II

7 Mar 1991 · HIGH ISLAND, TX, United States

Dme Helicopters Bell 206B II · Accident

From Scholes International At Galveston Airport (GLS) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
FTW91LA048
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
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 206B II

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
N59491
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Scholes International At Galveston Airport (GLS), Galveston, TXTo 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
Other
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
Miscellaneous/other
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

  • Company/operator management › Supervision, inadequate
  • External load sling/harness › Inadequate
  • Other crewmember › Miscellaneous, inadvertent
  • Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
  • Rotor drive system, tail rotor drive shaft › Sheared
  • Rotor system, tail rotor blade › Entangled
  • Rotor system, tail rotor blade › Foreign object

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE MISSION WAS TO LOCATE AND MARK A DOWNED HELICOPTER FLOATING INVERTED OFFSHORE. A CREWMAN WAS LOWERED BY A NYLON STRAP TO ATTACH THE MARKER BOUY. AS DARKNESS SET IN, THE CREWMAN SIGNALED TO COME BACK ABOARD. THE OTHER OBSERVER THREW THE NYLON STRAP TO THE CREWMAN ON THE FLOATING HELICOPTER. THE INBOARD END OF THE STRAP WAS ATTACHED TO A SEAT BELT ANCHOR POINT. DURING THE RETRIEVAL THE CREWMAN RELEASED HIS HOLD ON THE STRAP AND FELL INTO THE WATER. DURING THE SUBSEQUENT SEARCH ACTIVITY THE CREWMAN WAS FOUND DROWNED. THE PILOT SUBSEQUENTLY REPORTED A LOW FUEL STATE TO THE PARTICIPATING U.S.COAST GUARD HELICOPTER AND RETURNED TOWARD GALVESTON. AS HE ARRIVED OVER THE BEACH THE PILOT EXPERIENCED A LOSS OF DIRECTIONAL CONTROL AND AUTOROTATED TO A HARD LANDING. THE NYLON STRAP THAT HAD BEEN LEFT HANGING OUTSIDE THE HELICOPTER HAD BECOME ENTANGLED AROUND THE TAIL ROTOR SHEARING THE DRIVE SHAFT.

Probable cause

FOR OCCURRENCE #1 - INADEQUATE SUPERVISION BY THE OPERATOR IN LAUNCHING A HAZARDOUS MISSION WITHOUT AN ADEQUATE SLING/HARNESS, THE PILOT'S POOR JUDGEMENT IN ACCEPTING AND CONTINUING THE MISSION INTO LOW LIGHT CONDITIONS, AND THE CREWMEMBER'S INADVERTENT RELEASE OF HIS HOLD OF THE NYLON STRAP. FOR OCCURRENCES #2-4 - FAILURE OF THE TAIL ROTOR DRIVE SHAFT AS A RESULT OF ENTANGLEMENT OF AN UNSECURED NYLON STRAP.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record FTW91LA048
Event ID
20001212X16603
Case number
FTW91LA048
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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
  • The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1991-03-08.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 680867bf5e7bc2d0c031031a1c8dbc244224bbaf97585658bf1597a74432c59f; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:56:19.432Z.