SEA99LA149 · Bell 47G-2
Bell 47G-2 · Accident: loss of engine power
From WA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA99LA149
- 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 47G-2
- 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
- N11VH
- Operator
- Beightol, Steven, L. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From WATo 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
- Unknown
- 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 engine power
- 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 › Rotor RPM, not maintained
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The non-certificated pilot, who had been building the helicopter for several years, had recorded a total of 5 hours of flight experience in 1988 and an additional 10 hours in 1999 (July 19th through August 24th). Although all his flight time had been logged as 'dual,' family members reported that a number of the eight flights conducted in 1999 (all in the accident helicopter), had been flown solo. An ear witness reported hearing the helicopter depart followed by a 'popping' sound and then silence. The witness then observed a plume of smoke. A mechanic stated that the pilot reported having engine problems and then borrowed a used carburetor and the pilot's logbook contained an entry dated 8/16/99 with the remark 'flight test changed carb running good.' The aircraft impacted terrain in a steep descent and wreckage distribution was confined to a small area. Minimal leading edge rotor blade damage was noted and the engine/rotor RPM indicator was observed to display '0' and '170' RPM respectively at the site. The center portion of the helicopter including the engine and transmission were heavily damaged in the post-crash fire.
Probable cause
A loss of power for undetermined reasons and the failure of the pilot to maintain adequate rotor RPM following the power loss. Contributing factors were the pilot's lack of certification and total experience.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA99LA149
- Event ID
- 20001212X19655
- Case number
- SEA99LA149
- 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: 9529ceb342a74caba83ebef9436b6dabf4f6ce7f92a9d69f6c788f11af1b1454; retrieved 2026-09-20T21:51:30.375Z.