FTW91LA121 · Bell 206B
Houston Helicopters Bell 206B · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during an emergency descent
From Pearland, TX (no airport) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW91LA121
- 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 206B
- 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
- N16962
- Operator
- Houston Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Pearland, TX (no airport)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
- Emergency descent
- 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)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Fuel starvation
- 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 › Rotor RPM, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT STATED THAT THE FUEL GAUGE READ 74 GALLONS DURING HIS PRE FLIGHT INSPECTION AND THAT 10 MINUTES AFTER TAKEOFF, WHEN HE WAS ABOUT HALF WAY TO HIS DESTINATION, IT WAS READING 24 GALLONS. HE FURTHER STATED THAT WHEN HE WAS ABOUT 5 MILES FROM THE DESTINATION THE BOOST PUMP LIGHTS CAME ON AND THE GAUGE WAS READING 5 GALLONS. HE STATED THAT AT THAT POINT HE DECIDED TO EXECUTE A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING AND FIND THE PROBLEM. THE ENGINE FLAMED OUT DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION BEFORE HE COULD LAND AND HE ENTERED AUTOROTATION. DURING THE DESCENT THE PILOT NOTICED THAT HE WAS GOING TO HIT A BUSH AND HE EXTENDED HIS GLIDE OVER THE BUSH. AS A RESULT THE AIRCRAFT LANDED HARD IN A TAIL LOW ATTITUDE. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE PILOT HAD NOT VISUALLY CHECKED THE FUEL DURING THE PRE FLIGHT AND THAT THE AIRCRAFT HAD 20 GALLONS OF FUEL ON BOARD WHEN HE DEPARTED ON THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT. ALL OF THE FUEL SYSTEM COMPONENTS, INCLUDING THE FUEL GAUGE WERE FUNCTIONALLY TESTED AND OPERATED NORMALLY.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN SUFFICIENT ROTOR RPM DURING THE AUTOROTATION. FACTORS WERE THE FUEL EXHAUSTION INDUCED POWER LOSS DUE TO THE PILOT'S IMPROPER PRE-FLIGHT INSPECTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW91LA121
- Event ID
- 20001212X17557
- Case number
- FTW91LA121
- 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: a52612c7e181d36a649848a6085be85806bf8fb73489312f1b8bb153ea8d3e4a; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:57:01.057Z.