FTW00LA140 · Bell 206-L4
Bell 206-L4 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Littleton, CO (private airstrip) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW00LA140
- 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 206-L4
- 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
- N52192
- Operator
- Stephen E. Gavit · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Littleton, CO (private airstrip)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
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was flying low level over a lake (elevation 10,900 feet) at 25 feet agl and 20 knots airspeed. The helicopter started veering to the right, and the pilot attempted to gain altitude by adding power in an attempt to clear a tree, which was in front of the helicopter. The pilot then 'pushed the collective down trying to fly out of 'settling with power'.' The pilot stated that he was regaining control of the helicopter when it impacted the water with the left skid, which resulted in the helicopter rolling over. The helicopter came to rest on its left side, partially submerged in the lake. The pilot reported that the sky was clear, the wind was calm, and the temperature was 45 degrees Fahrenheit. The density altitude at the accident site was calculated by the NTSB investigator-in-charge to be approximately 12,477 feet. Examination of the helicopter did not reveal any anomalies that would have prevented normal operation of the helicopter.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain control of the helicopter while maneuvering. A factor was the high density altitude weather conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW00LA140
- Event ID
- 20001212X20992
- Case number
- FTW00LA140
- 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: 917b37d5aea7b21a1ad7bba716e8fe33db6f0c4beba2a12d306ed7818987027e; retrieved 2026-09-21T10:39:46.694Z.