MIA00LA176 · Bell 47G-2
Bell 47G-2 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From FA14 to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA00LA176
- 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 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
- N96MB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From FA14To 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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 › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, encountered
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that after takeoff climbing through approximately 300 feet, the engine experienced a loss of power. He maneuvered the helicopter towards the beach and landed about 20 yards offshore. No fuel contamination was noted in the fuel tanks that contained sufficient fuel. A slight amount of sand/silt was noted in the fuel strainer; the carburetor bowl contained about a pint of water admixed with sand or silt. The left fuel tank vent line and vent line 'B' nut were damaged. Examination of the engine revealed valve train continuity of all cylinders. During an attempt to start the engine; the magnetos would not producing spark. Examination of the carburetor revealed internal corrosion; no preimpact failure or malfunction was noted. Examination of both magnetos revealed internal corrosion. The points of both magnetos were lightly dressed and high tension tested; both magnetos produced spark. One ignition lead of the left magneto was not firing due to corrosion on one of the electrodes; the corrosion was cleaned and the magneto fired all of the ignition leads. Additionally, the condenser of the right magneto tested bad.
Probable cause
The unsuitable terrain encountered by the pilot-in-command during the forced landing and the loss of engine power for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA00LA176
- Event ID
- 20001212X21085
- Case number
- MIA00LA176
- 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: 967a9531d81ad4ebc33fac73b0b43ab7ffbac042358f2134baf15635c8e641a7; retrieved 2026-09-22T12:51:44.750Z.