NYC00LA263 · Bell 206B
Raco Helicopters Bell 206B · Accident: loss of engine power while maneuvering
From Belleville, NJ (no airport) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC00LA263
- 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
- N3298G
- Operator
- Raco Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Belleville, NJ (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 137: Agricultural
- 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 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of North Arlington, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot had completed an aerial application, and was returning to a private helipad. About 40-60 feet agl, a warning light momentarily illuminated. The pilot attempted to divert to an airport where maintenance facilities were available, but the engine lost all power. The pilot autorotated to a field, and damaged the main rotor blades and tailboom. Examination of the helicopter by a FAA inspector revealed that the fuel gauge displayed 'E' and 5-7 gallons of fuel was present in the fuel tank. In addition, the operator had reported that and electrical connector had failed in one of the fuel boost pumps. According to a representative from the helicopter manufacturer, the make and model helicopter burned about 25 gallons of fuel per hour. Review of the helicopter manual revealed, 'Due to possible fuel sloshing in unusual attitudes or out of trim conditions and one or both fuel boost pumps inoperative, the unusable fuel is ten gallons.' Review of FAR 91.151(b) revealed, 'No person may begin a flight in a rotorcraft under VFR conditions unless (considering wind and forecast weather conditions) there is enough fuel to fly to the first point of intended landing and, assuming normal cruising speed, to fly after that for at least 20 minutes.'
Probable cause
The pilot's improper decision to fly with an insufficient fuel quantity. A factor in the accident was the failure of the fuel boost pump.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC00LA263
- Event ID
- 20001212X22061
- Case number
- NYC00LA263
- 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: 3a0998c64f5afa9ef96182a978f7722c0d22ee9e2ad1e9c28a69262a4fafa35d; retrieved 2026-09-22T12:27:15.039Z.