Classic Lifeguard Aeromedical Bell 206L-1 accident
Bell 206L-1 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to St George Regional Airport (SGU)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX01LA013
- 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
Bell 206L-1
- 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
- N2233F
- Operator
- Classic Lifeguard Aeromedical
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo St George Regional Airport (SGU), ST GEORGE, UT
- 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
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the aeromedical evacuation of a seriously injured patient, the helicopter pilot attempted to takeoff from a clearing surrounded by trees and high elevation terrain. Also on board the helicopter were a paramedic and a flight nurse. The crewmembers indicated that no tree branches were closer than 8 to 20 feet from the helicopter as it gained between 80 and 100 feet above the terrain. As the pilot turned into the light wind, the tail rotor lost effectiveness and the helicopter started yawing uncontrollably in a clockwise direction. Due to the lack of climb performance in the high density altitude (approximately 8,850 feet) and heavy weight condition, the pilot made a forced landing in the underlying terrain during which it impacted trees.
Probable cause
The pilot's in-flight loss of control during liftoff due to his improper planning and decisions. Related factors were the high density altitude and helicopter weight condition, and the lack of a suitable takeoff area.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX01LA013
- Event ID
- 20001212X22192
- Case number
- LAX01LA013
- 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: e3f694dc469c55e2b8f0a04cddb30509ff5ba73cf9b89db295dde2a6508ac594; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:22:09.303Z.