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FTW91LA023 · Bell 206L-1

9 Dec 1990 · W.CAMERON 266

Industrial Helicopters Bell 206L-1 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during landing

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Event

NTSB case
FTW91LA023
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 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
N5753B
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 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
Landing
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
Airframe, component or system failure
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

  • Landing gear, skid assembly › Collapsed
  • Landing gear, skid assembly › Cracked
  • Landing gear, skid assembly › Fatigue

Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.

NTSB narrative

AN ATP RATED HELICOPTER PILOT WAS LANDING ON A HELIPAD ATOP AN OIL PLATFORM IN THE GULF OF MEXICO. UPON TOUCHDOWN, THE RIGHT REAR LANDING SKID COLLAPSED CAUSING THE TAIL ROTOR TO STRIKE THE DECK. AS THE PILOT APPLIED COLLECTIVE PITCH TO LEVEL THE AIRCRAFT, THE AIRCRAFT STARTED SPINNING. THE HELICOPTER'S MAIN ROTOR BLADES STRUCK THE DECK AND SEPARATED AS THE FUSELAGE SPUN OFF THE HELIDECK, LANDING ON A LOWER DECK. METALLURGICAL EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT THE FAILURE WAS DUE TO HIGH CYCLE LOW STRESS FATIGUE.

Probable cause

FAILURE OF THE HELICOPTER'S AFT LANDING GEAR CROSSTUBE ASSEMBLY DUE TO FATIGUE.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record FTW91LA023
Event ID
20001212X24761
Case number
FTW91LA023
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: d69bcb903f4caf7faafd2751e4eb36d9e0d9423eb2c0e5d56a0f9b7f2971184f; retrieved 2026-09-23T05:03:40.885Z.