DEN90FA053 · Bell 205A-1
Northern Mountain Helicopters Bell 205A-1 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From JOHNNY MOUNTAIN (no airport) to Wrangell Airport (WRG)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN90FA053
- 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
- 6 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Bell 205A-1
- Aircraft type
- Bell 205
- 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
- CGNMJ
- Operator
- Northern Mountain Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From JOHNNY MOUNTAIN (no airport)To Wrangell Airport (WRG), Wrangell, AK
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER, C-GNMJ, CRASHED ON A FRZN RIVER AS MINERS WERE BEING TRANSPORTED FROM THE JOHNNY MOUNTAIN GOLD MINE (NEAR THE U.S./CANADIAN BORDER) TO WRANGELL, AK. THE PLT COULD NOT RECALL THE ACCIDENT & THE SURVIVING PASSENGER (PAX) REFUSED TO BE INTERVIEWED. ANOTHER HELICOPTER WAS EN ROUTE FROM WRANGELL TO THE MINE SITE AT THE SAME TIME. THE PLT OF THE OTHER HELICOPTER MADE 2 ATTEMPTS TO PENETRATE THE BACK SIDE OF THE SNOW SQUALL & FAILED. AFTER REVERSING COURSE TO RTRN TO WRANGELL, THAT PLT SIGHTED THE WRECKAGE OF C-GNMJ. PASSENGERS WHO HAD FLOWN TO WRANGELL ABOARD C-GNMJ ON A PREVIOUS TRIP SAID THEY HAD ENCOUNTERED SNOW SQUALLS & WHITEOUT CONDITIONS. AT ONE POINT, ONE OF THE PAX BELIEVED THE HELICOPTER WAS IN A HOVER. HE SAID IT THEN CAME OUT OF THE SQUALL IN A STEEP BANK. A FORMER EMPLOYEE RPRTD THAT COMPANY OFFICIALS PRESSURED THE PLTS TO COMPLETE THEIR FLTS, IN SPITE OF MARGINAL WX CONDITIONS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S CONTINUED VFR FLIGHT INTO INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS (IMC), AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT DUE TO SPATIAL DISORIENTATION. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: COMPANY INDUCED PRESSURE TO MAKE THE FLIGHT, THE PILOT'S DECISION TO INITIATE FLIGHT INTO KNOWN ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS, HIS LACK OF INSTRUMENT EXPERIENCE, HIS OVERCONFIDENCE IN HIS PERSONAL ABILITIES, AND THE ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN90FA053
- Event ID
- 20001212X22538
- Case number
- DEN90FA053
- 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: 86ce005300587b0c1c3281576d1d9eb03be18d8ccf9c6230de8643fd5f558524; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:58:13.128Z.