U.T. Lifestar Bell 412 incident
Bell 412 · Incident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL91IA014
- 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
- Incident
- 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 412
- Aircraft type
- Bell 412
- 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
- N412UT
- Operator
- U.T. Lifestar
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE NIGHT, VFR FLIGHT WAS DISPATCHED TO A STRETCH OF INTERSTATE HIGHWAY TO PICK UP A PATIENT. PRIOR TO LANDING THE LZ WAS SEARCHED FOR OBSTRUCTIONS WITH THE 'NIGHT SUN', AND THE GROUND PERSONNEL ALSO INSPECTED THE LZ. NO OBSTRUCTIONS WERE REPORTED OR OBSERVED IN THE IMMEDIATE LZ AREA. AFTER LANDING, THE PILOT ALSO WALKED THE DEPARTURE CORRIDOR WITH A FLASHLIGHT. SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, THE HELICOPTER COLLIDED WITH FOUR WIRES WHICH WERE STRUNG ACROSS THE HIGHWAY. NEITHER THE FLIGHT CREW NOR THE GROUND PERSONNEL SAW THE WIRES PRIOR TO THE COLLISION. THE WIRES WERE BLACK IN COLOR, AND THE POLES WERE HIDDEN BY BUILDINGS AND TREES. ALSO, HIGH INTENSITY LIGHT STANDARDS LINED THE HIGHWAY AT THE LZ.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO SEE AND AVOID THE WIRES PRIOR TO THE COLLISION. FACTORS IN THE INCIDENT WERE THE FAILURE OF THE GROUND PERSONNEL TO ADEQUATELY INSPECT THE LANDING ZONE, THE PRESENCE OF HIGH INTENSITY LIGHTS AT THE LZ, AND THE DARK LIGHTING CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL91IA014
- Event ID
- 20001212X24561
- Case number
- ATL91IA014
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1990-11-03.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 612fb15d97dd518c82f1c305987926658f78ad219dd1b7938fda0302940ecd60; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:58:42.103Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N412UT; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.