Air Logistics Mbb BO-105S accident
Mbb BO-105S · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Whitaker Ultralightport (39LA)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's aircraft involved. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW99LA215
- 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
- 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
Mbb BO-105S Narrative disagrees
- Aircraft type
- MBB BO-105
- 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
- N2785R
- Operator
- Air Logistics
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Whitaker Ultralightport (39LA), Cameron, LA
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Loss of control on ground/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
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, 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
The BO-105S helicopter began to spin on the helipad as the pilot was preparing for takeoff. The pilot stated that he 'advanced the throttles to 100%,' and then as he reached to adjust the volume of the radios, the helicopter began 'spinning to the left and sliding backwards.' The helicopter completed two 360-degree revolutions, during which it contacted and knocked a parked, unmanned Bell 206L-3 into the Gulf of Mexico. The BO-105S helicopter came to rest in the safety wire at the edge of the platform. The pilot stated that the winds were from the south, southwest at 30 knots, and the helicopter was initially facing west. Control continuity was established to all flight control systems.
Probable cause
The failure of the pilot to maintain directional control of the helicopter while attempting to takeoff. A factor was the high wind condition.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW99LA215
- Event ID
- 20001212X19510
- Case number
- FTW99LA215
- 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: fbaf55a91c791d04798d2b949b6341c46e613549f1782bdc7d73e427e13b22a1; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:54:27.684Z.